Bollywood’s Varun Dhawan thanks Abrarul Haq for ‘Nach Punjaban’, claims T-Series bought song rights

The singer has previously denied selling the rights for the song used in Karan Johar’s film JugJugg Jeeyo.

Staff Reporter

Weeks after controversy spread over Indian movie JugJugg Jeeyo copying Pakistani singer Abrarul Haq’s song ‘Nach Punjaban’, one of the film’s stars, Varun Dhawan, has thanked the singer for the song, reiterating the production house’s claim that they own the rights to it.

For many Bollywood fans, the trailer for the movie seemed like the set up for a perfect family film that offered upbeat music, dance numbers, comedy and drama. But for Pakistanis, who heard the familiar song in it, it was another addition to a long list of plagiarised work. Last month, Haq took to Twitter and accused Karan Johar and the filmmaker’s company Dharma Productions of stealing his song and said he never sold them the rights to ‘Nach Punjaban’.

In an interview to Bollywood Hungama on Thursday, Varun Dhawan thanked Haq for his song and said that the film’s music company, T-Series, bought the rights to the original.

The Coolie No. 1 actor told Bollywood Hungama, “I want to say to Abrar that he sung the song so well, the original one. It is amazing, outstanding and we loved it. Our music company, they bought the rights and now our song is doing so well, so thank you.”

Images has reached out to Haq for a comment on this development.

Previously, Haq had tweeted, “I have not sold my song ‘Nach Punjaban’ to any Indian movie and reserve the rights to go to court to claim damages. Producers like Karan Johar should not use copy songs. This is my 6th song being copied which will not be allowed at all.”

Later the music company claimed that they bought the rights and release a statement that read that all due credits will be included when the music itself releases. It also said that they acquired the rights through Moviebox Records Label that owns the copyrights to the song.

Earlier this month, Haq had also shared a video of himself where he said, “A lot of fans have been asking me ‘why haven’t you gone to the court against Karan Johar and T-Series for stealing your song ‘Nach Punjaban’. The answer is yes I’m going to the court don’t worry. Merely saying that the credit has been given because the song is well written and would make their movie a hit. I never gave you the song, I never gave anybody the rights to my song. It belongs to me so I’ll get it back and I’m coming to the court, see you there.”

The song in the film is titled ‘The Punjabban Song’ and uses the exact same tune as Haq’s original but features different lyrics. It was released on May 28 and was shared by Johar as the first song from the upcoming film that saw Dhawan, Anil Kapoor, Kiara Advani and Neetu Singh dancing to the popular chorus and hook of Haq’s song from his 2002 album Nach Punjaban.

This isn’t the only plagiarism claim faced by the production house. Indian writer Vishal A Singh had also claimed that JugJugg Jeeyo’s story had been copied from his story that he had pitched to Dharma Productions two years ago in hopes of a collaboration.

The film will hit the theatres in India tomorrow, June 24