New Delhi: Pakistani musician Farasat Anees has locked horns with Indian music label giant T-Series, calling it a “thief” and blaming it for “ruining every good song from Pakistan”. He has accused the production company of allegedly “copying” his song Biba, which was featured in the internationally acclaimed 2022 film Joyland.
Both Anees’ version and the newly released T-Series song—which is also called Biba—are inspired by Pakistani qawwali legend Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s song Je Toon Akhiyan De Samne.
“A billion-dollar company like T-Series should be professional in its approach. They (the music directors) could have at least reached out to me or perhaps mailed me once before putting out the song. There was no communication from their end. Perhaps there could have been a counter-quote, and we could have made something together,” Anees told ThePrint over phone.
When he released Biba in September 2020, it became an instant hit, raking in over 25 million views on YouTube.
T-Series released its version of Biba on 22 February, crediting Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Lijo George-DJ Chetas, and Farrukh Fateh Ali Khan as music composers.
That did not go down well with Farasat Anees. Taking to Instagram, the singer shared the clip and called T-Series “a disgrace (for) stealing work because it has been trending in the world”.
“Please have some shame and stop ruining every good song from Pakistan. Even if you wanted to reproduce the song, you should have done [using] the original stuff. Clearly stole chords, intro, arrangements of our version. Clear theft!”
Anees spoke about what went down when he first heard T-Series’ Biba. His initial reaction was “a bad vibe” and he said he felt “weird”.
“This is not the first time they have done something like this. They’ve earlier done this with Abrar’s song. If nothing else, this only motivates me that such a big label has copied my song and that makes me want to do better work further,” he said.
In May last year, Pakistani singer Abrar ul Haq accused filmmaker Karan Johar and his production house of stealing his song ‘Nach Punjaban’ in their film Jugjugg Jeeyo.
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What constitutes an original song?
Anees’ Biba was a part of his debut album OFIVE1. The song had vocals by Rizwan and Muazzam, nephews of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.
“It might be a Nusrat song, sure, but there are companies that sell sample packs of the song that you are legally authorised to use. I used the qawwali vocal pack with my own composition and melodies. It was my arrangement,” Anees said.
He alleges that T-Series copied the intro (sung by Sachet Tandon), but, most importantly, it is the label company allegedly plagiarising the song arrangement that he has a problem with.
“T-Series has been unresponsive so far, but we do plan to take legal action,” he told ThePrint.
T-Series is yet to respond to ThePrint’s inquiry email.
Indians coming out in support
Many Indian fans have extended support to Anees in the YouTube comment section, calling his version a “masterpiece”.
“My largest listener base is in India. I get around 200-300 snaps almost every 2 hours. Even they are against this cheap move. The Indian support motivates me,” Anees said.
The love & respect our indians showed to our version of BIBA was massive. We will always be greatful for that. Also Supporting us on the comment section of this cheap copy of BIBA. Will always be thankful to listeners across the border! ♥️
— Farasat Anees (@farasatanees) February 22, 2023
(Edited by Humra Laeeq)