While listening to the song ‘pehli nazar’ from the movie ‘Race’ when a friend told me that this is a plagiarized version of some song, it really did not come as a big shock. So the other day I checked out the wikipedia profile of Pritam Chakraborty and yes this time I was shocked seeing this:

“Plagiarism

Several of Pritam’s hits are remixed versions of various Middle Eastern, Indonesian, Korean and Caribbean songs. As a consequence, he has faced serious charges of plagiarism. It remains unclear whether Pritam bought the rights of these songs. A Kuwaiti band named ‘Guitara’ was considering suing Pritam for copying their song titled “Ya Ghali” whose plagiarized version titled “Ya Ali” was a huge hit in India. An Indian stage-band called ‘Moheener Ghoraguli’ was also planning to take Pritam to the court for lifting tunes from their song. Below is a list of various popular songs allegedly plagiarized by Pritam:

* ‘Ya Ali’ from Gangster: Copied from Kuwaiti band Guitara’s ‘Ya Ghali’
* ‘Kya Mujhe Pyaar Hai’ from Woh Lamhe: Copied from Peterpan’s ‘Tak Bisakah’
* ‘Yeh Ishq Hai’ from Jab We Met: Partly copied from Anggun’s ‘In Your Mind’
* ‘Dil Samandar’ from Garam Masala: Copied from Tarkan’s ‘Kuzu Kuzu’
* ‘Dhoom Machale’ from Dhoom: Partly copied from Jesse Cook’s ‘Mario takes a walk’
* ‘Tikhi Tikhi’ from Speed: Copied from Tarkan’s Dudu
* ‘Pyaar ka Signal’ from Bhagam Bhag: Copied from Superblue’s ‘Signal for Lara’
* ‘Dil Mein Baji Guitar’ from Apna Sapna Money Money: Partly copied from Miami Band’s ‘Sheloha shela’
* ‘Aao Milo Chalo’ from Jab We Met: Copied from Peterpan’s ‘Di Belakangku’
* ‘Ankhiya Na Maar Mere’ from 2005’s “Ek khiladi Ek Hasina” features Usher’s ‘Yeah’ riff
* ‘Shikdum’ from Dhoom is taken from Tarkan’s ‘Shikdim’
* ‘ Oh Meri Jaan ‘ from 2007’s ” Life In a… Metro” : The opening Guitar notes are a direct lift from the Opening guitar notes of the song ‘ Silent Lucidity’ by Queensrÿche.
* ‘Pehli Nazar, a blockbuster hit song sung by Atif Aslam, from the movie Race was copied from a Korean hit song ‘Sarang Hae Yo’ by Kim Hyung Su
* ‘Hare Krishna Hare Raam’ from Bhool Bhulieya: Copied from the korean group JTL’s song My Lecon from their 2001 album Enter the Dragon”

Out of shock i typed “Pritam Plagarism” in google and got across this website where you can find the whole history of copied music of various composers(or rather copiers). For someone like Pritam who has not been in the industry for very long he has 45 tracks in the website which are said to be copied. I listened to a few tracks and certainly they were copied. We all know that Anu Malik and Rajesh Roshan have been big time plagiarists and yes pritam is certainly giving them a run for their money.

I really had good respect for this guy when i heard the tracks of Life in a Metro and some of his other songs but what can you say when you find out that every hit track of his is a lift off.

Just hoping that there is some scope left for originality as well.