Saturday, 16 November 2024
Saturday, 16 November 2024
A Kolkata musician has accused music label T-series of using his original composition without permission in the song Maiyya from the Netflix film Do Patti.
Rajarshi Mitter, a guitar player and music producer, told The Telegraph Online that he has sent a legal notice to T-Series, the movie’s producers Kanika Dhillon and Kriti Sanon, and composers Sachet-Parampara.
The notice alleges copyright infringement and financial loss.
“My lawyer, Priyanka Khimani from Mumbai, has sent a Cease & Desist Notice to "T-Series", producers of the Netflix feature film ‘Do Patti’, Ms. Kanika Dhillon & Ms. Kriti Sanon, and the music composer duo Sachet-Parampara,” Mitter, a guitar player and music producer, said.
“We are awaiting a response from them. The notice also mentions about copyright and the monetary loss I faced. Nobody from T-series has formally contacted me. Sachet messaged me but then had deleted all the messages from his end. They have also changed the audio in all their releases on the platform but the damage is done,” he added.
How did it begin?
Mitter said he came to know about the alleged misuse of his work when someone informed him about the song Maiyya.
“I do not follow Bollywood music too much, to be very honest,” he said. “One day, I was scrolling through my social media and someone texted me there that my track has been used in a movie called Do Patti and that I should check it out.
“When I checked it, I found that this is exactly my track that has been used. They must have downloaded it from the internet and modified it slightly to match the arrangement of the song. But the track was absolutely my own which I had uploaded back in 2018 on my YouTube channel,” Mitter said.
He said he got in touch with the makers of the track and they responded initially only to clam up later.
“I got in touch with Sachet Tandon and he did not respond immediately, I had posted about this on my Facebook, which started doing the rounds and people started sharing it. Last Friday morning, he replied to me saying that this thing should not have happened. ‘Let me check with my arranger and then I'll get back to you,’ he said. He sounded like he did not have any idea about this and his arrangers were at fault,” Mitter said.
After this, there was no further contact. Later, Mitter said he noticed that T-Series had credited him as an arranger for the song, but he found this move unsatisfactory.
“I was figuring out how to move ahead with this and I made a video which kind of went viral. Sachet texted me on Instagram for my phone number, but I did not respond to him,” he said.
“This is a clear case of plagiarism. I have also applied for a copyright claim on YouTube and I am pretty sure that they have understood that this is wrong. Despite having so much money and resources at their disposal they still took such a low practice just to save some time and creativity, which I believe they do not even have,” he added.
Online reaction
The issue gained attention after Mitter’s wife, Nilanjana Ghosh Dastidar, who is also a musician and plays the bass, shared details on social media. In her post, she called for action against T-Series and the composers, urging fellow artistes to raise their voices. Several listeners supported her post, pointing out the similarities between the two songs.
“The last communication I had with Sachet was that he asked me not to do this social media thing and said we had put your name on the arranger list out of respect. He further said I am a musician, you are also a musician, we should have some mutual respect for each other, let’s sort it out and all. I am pretty sure, that they have done this with a lot of small creators, just because I have contacts, they got exposed,” added Mitter
“I have been a music professional since 2012, I have been with a lot of bands here in Calcutta. I have also worked with other eminent artistes in the Bengali music industry, I have toured with Sonu Nigam. The track that has been stolen was uploaded on August 31, 2018 and is one of the earliest tracks of my channel,” he said.
The Telegraph Online reached out to the team managing Sachet and Parampara from T-series, but they did not respond despite several attempts for a comment.
