Ever since Badshah’s Genda Phool and Sidharth Malhotra’s Masakali 2.0 released Bollywood has started debating on remixes, plagiarism and originality.
Recently Badshah talked about it, “I’m not saying I’m a poet, but comparison is a tool to make your language ornamental and that’s why I use similes and metaphors. Earlier, when there was no social media, feedback was delayed. Now, everyone has an opinion. As an artist, I respect that but I don’t have to heed everything,” he said.
Recently when Tanishk Bagchi released the new version of Madakali. The original’s composer AR Rahman didn’t like it as he appealed to the audience to listen to his song from Delhi 6. According to him an original needs a lot of heardwork, “no short cuts, properly commissioned, sleepless nights, writes and rewrites by over 200 musicians over 365 days of creative brainstorming with the aim to produce music that can last generations”. The film’s director, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, added, “Beware of the remix, it will damage your eardrums.”
However according to Badsha, it all boils down to audience reaction.
“Comparisons are inevitable. I loved the ‘Aankh Marey’ remix more than the original. My 2015 song, ‘Wakhra Swag’, was recently remixed for a film without my knowledge. It worked but I’m still asked to play my version wherever I go.”
“We were at an event and he called me from the other end of the room, to say that he really liked my remixed version of ‘Humma Humma’.”
