Is “Jug Jugg Jeeyo” based on the stolen Script?

INTRODUCTION 

In global times, Music copyrights, plagiarism and their ownership/rights to producer, artists and among other stakeholder have been under strong discussion across globe. In India this concept emerge out on the movie Jug Jugg Jeeyo by Dharma production.

 “Dharma Production Movie Jug Jugg Jeeyo Starring Varun Dhawan, Kiara Advani and other Co-stars faced plagiarism controversy. Pakistan’s singer Abrar ul Haq has accused Karan Johar and his production house (Dharma production) of stealing his music.”

The issue sparked on a song of Abrar ul Haq named as Nach Punjaban used in Karan’s Johar film Jug Jugg Jeeyo” as per him he haven’t sold his song to any movie house and reserve the right to go to court to claim damages. On the other side Music T-series has posted a statement on twitter refuting the claim. T-series mentioned they have acquired the right to adapt the song Nach  Punjaban from the Album Nach Punjaban released on i-tune on 1st January 2022 and it is available on Bollywood classics YouTube channel owned by Movie box Records Label, for the film Jug Jug Jeeyo produced by Dharma Productions. In this response Abrar ul Haq replied, he hadn’t license this song to anyone and if someone is claiming it then produced the agreement.

  Music Plagiarism

Music Plagiarism is the use or close imitation of music while representing it as one owner’s original work. Plagiarism in music now occurs on musical idea and sampling.

There are various cases of alleged plagiarism settled in the court, due to expenses of litigation. Most of the artist try and settle for costs. Since 1850 federal court have published fewer than 100 opinions dealing with this issue.

There is a successful suit and settlement on Music Plagiarism, Solomon Linda was a south African musician, singer and composer best known for his composed song “Mbube” which later became popular with the name “The lion sleep tonight” Despite the popularity of the song, he died impoverished in 1962 of renal failure, in February 2006, Linda estate attained a legal settlement with Abilene Music company, which had the worldwide rights and had license the song to Disney.

• Outcome of the settlement were, the Linda estate will receive payment for past uses of the Lion sleep tonight and an entitlement to future royalties from its worldwide use.

• The lion sleeps tonight is acknowledged as derived from Mbube

• Solomon Linda is acknowledge as a co-composer of the Lion sleeps tonight and will be designed as such in future too.

 Licensing Movie for Filmmaker

There are several type of license that a filmmaker need to acquire in order to use pre-recorded piece of music, first of all the right to use a song differs from the right to use a specific recording of song.

Filmmaker first has to discover who owns the song one’s they discover it there are three types of permission they typically need to obtain, the right to record and distribute copies to the song, to record the music in synchronisation with the moving pictures in the film and lastly to perform the song publically as part of the performance of the film.

   Conclusion 

In the Case of the Film Jug Jugg Jeeyo Song Punjaban, facts are not clear enough as legal battle is still going on,   as per Pakistan’s singer it is his own piece of work and he hadn’t license it to any film industry on the other hand T-series claim they have acquired all legal rights for the said song Punjaban from the Album Nach Punjaban released on i-tune on 1st January 2022 and it is available on Bollywood classics YouTube channel owned by Movie box Records Label.

If T-Series is making right claim then arguments of Pakistan’s singer isn’t justified on the other hand if T-series is making vague claim without obtaining prescribed legal rights it may be a stolen music.

Facts on the given case are not clear both the party are making their own sides but as a legal researcher I can only give my opinion. As per my opinion if Pakistan’s singer Abrar had sold his right to any YouTube channel, such YouTube channel has right to provide legal authorization. And if such YouTube channel itself does not have legal rights then T-series cannot make such claim. So as per my conclusion, the Fact of this case is not given clearly as this case is still pending in the court there can’t be single instance of opinion it is on the Judiciary to decide the battle between both the sides.

Written by:

 Priyanshu Jain.