A week ago, Pakistani music record label issued, EMI Pakistan had issued a legal notice to Salman Khan, Adnan Sami Khan and T-Series for not acquiring the right to use ‘Bhar Do Jholi’ in upcoming Bollywood movie ‘Bajrani Bhaijan. EMI had claimed that it owned the rights of ‘Bhar Do Jholi’, a Kalaam written by Poonam Allahabadi and originally sang by Sabri Brothers. Now, Adnan Sami Khan, in a Facebook status on his official page, has written that ‘Bhar Do Jholi’ had been sung and performed around the world by countless artists in past but EMI had not made any claim in past but now cashing on big budget film Bajrangi Bhaijaan.
Adnan Sami Khan’s Facebook status reads as;
I’m not willing to believe that the Pakistan Censor Board will allow a Private organisation such as EMI with a highly debatable claim on a legendary piece of music which has been sung & performed around the world by countless Artists in the past (with no claims made by EMI for those other past renditions!) to dictate to it whether or not Bajrangi Bhaijaan should be released in Pakistan.
Read: Bhar Do Jholi: EMI sends legal notice to Salman Khan, Adnan Sami and T-series
PCB is too big to take such dictations by anyone with clear agendas of merely wanting to attempt to ‘cash in’ on a big budget film!! It will be a shame to allow this to happen since this is one of the most awaited films this year & it carries a true, honest, emotional & passionate message of love & harmony between the 2 countries. It will be a tragedy to the theme of the film that it’s release gets stopped in Pakistan which will end up defeating the beautiful message of peace which the film carries with it.
Also read: BHAR DO JHOLI MERI: Amjad Sabri set to take legal action against Adnan Sami
Can anyone claim a copyright on ” Lal meri path..Dumadum Mast qalander” or “Heer” etc? How many have sung those? With EMI Pakistan’s newly found ‘Holier than thou” approach to copyrights, they are opening a pandora’s box of accountability for all the Indian releases they have done in the past decades without prior copyright permissions from HMV India (now renamed ‘Sa Re Ga Ma’) or any recording or film company in the past!!! Let’s not go there!
Wake up and smell the piracy that exists in Pakistan for Heaven sakes! You wish to ban a film on account of it’s content being objectionable… By all means, you have the right. But to stop it on account of someone trying to claim ‘copyright’ on a legendary piece of work that is legible as being in the category of ‘world domain’ is outrageous!
An unfortunate fact is that there is no sale of any DVD or CD in Pakistan that has been legally licensed by it’s owners from Bollywood or Hollywood! My music is available in Pakistan in stores but all the CDs or DVDs of my recorded music released in Pakistan post the year 1999 to date are all Pirated & illegal copies!!! That is a FACT! Where is the sense of “Copyright’ when it comes to that? So now you are going to allow this to happen? I don’t believe it! It’s most unfortunate…
In this case, there are at least 5 so called claimants to the copyrights of this one Qawwali!! It’s like someone getting up & claiming copyright on “Happy Birthday”!!!
I’m sure that in the spirit of love & harmony that this film exudes, PCB will show reciprocation towards the hand of love & friendship that the film makers have extended through the beautiful theme of this film & release this film in the same spirit as a great gesture of it’s good office & in the spirit of Eid. This film is not at all against Pakistan!! You must see it! Pakistan will love this film!!!
