Plagiarism galore

The recent Krazzy 4 plagiaristic controversy that came to light with the help of one determined soul who had the courage to fight for what is right. With this in mind we wonder whether this blatant lifting of music scores, plots and whatever else there may be will ever come to an end. If not then will this phase that has since turned into a fad slow down and have repercussions for the copy cats...

Though Ram Sampath has got his pound of flesh in kind with a compensation of Rs2 croroe, there are others who still haven't got anything, not even an acknowledgement. Hence we take a look at some of the well known plagiarizers in Bollywood with great examples of xerography.

Besides this wont be the first article that pays a tribute to these copy cats, two series of videos on youtube put the composer Pritam under the scanner for allegedly 'lifting' tunes. These videos feature Pritam's hits followed by the originals they sound similar to. The video of ' Yeh Ishq Hai ' from Jab We Met is followed by the ' Etre Une Femme ' video by Indonesian artist Anggun. Other examples include songs from movies like Metro , Gangster and Race – all mega-hits tailed by songs that are hauntingly similar. Some of the bands are obscure – they're Indonesian, Korean, Turkish and others who are nevertheless popular in the region they come from.

Even in the days gone by Pritam has never denied his sources of inspiration. Thus raising the question: as long as the music is a hit, do producers care about minor details like copyright?

Rajesh Roshan is no stranger to this concept of borrowing. To prove this we have listed some of the track that may just ring a bell...

Chaand Sitaare from Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai , the humming was copied exactly from Voices by Vangelis! En Panchiyon . Then there is the instrumental theme from Koi Mil Gaya , which in turn is grafted from Kraftwerk's 'Trans-Europe Express'. Dil Na Diya from Krrish is said to be 'inspired' by the Turkish Military march track 'Ceddin deden' . Then there is Idhar Chala in the film Koi Mil Gaya , lifted off a traditional/ folk South American tune called ' Suenos '

The well known king of composing (and lifting if I may say so) Anu Mallik has gone a long way in turning the term 'being inspired' into an art form. Here are some of his sources: Mera piya ghar aaya in Yaarana compared to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's 'Mera piya ghar', Sandese Aate Hain from Border whose opening portion is inspired from 'With A little help from my friends' by the Beatles, Yeh kaali kaali aankhen in Baazigar has been inspired by Dean Martin's 'The man who plays the mandolino', Hai mera dil from the film Josh is basically a combination of Gypsy Kings' number 'Djobi Djoba' and Brian Hyland's 'Sealed with a kiss', the prelude from the theme track of the 1971 film Summer of 42 is replicated in Tere dar par Sanam from Phir teri kahani yaad aayi, Kaho na kaho from the hit film Murder is another example but the difference is that this song is not composed by Anu Malik, even though he's been credited as the composer. Jaane Jaana once again from the film Murder is an original by a popular Bangaldeshi band, Miles, called 'Firiye dao'

Shekhar from the Vishal-Shekhar team reacts to the Ram Sampath-Rajesh Roshan case saying, "Whatever Ram did, any music director would do. But, Hrithik and the Roshans are really nice people, so it's sad that something like this has happened. As far as copying goes, it has been going on for many years. www.itwofs.com is a website that talks about the many 'legendary' music directors who have lifted tunes. It's unfortunate as musicians are capable of writing better songs than what they've lifted. I don't know why people do that."

What about the fact that their song from Cash reminds listeners of the Pulp Fiction track, Misirlou? He says, "With Cash, it's the genre which is the style used. For example, hip-hip has a base line which is common to many songs. We don't believe in copying tunes. We'll never be able to do that and sleep soundly at night."

We wonder how the others manage a sound sleep especially after stealing someone else's sound and making a good load of moolah from this thievery