If there was one thing that was particularly catchy in film Maan Jao Na’s trailer, it was the upbeat tunes like the famous ‘Bijli Bhari Hai Meray Ang Ang Mein’. But it turns out that despite having legal copyrights to the songs, the producers of the film have received a legal stay order to remove the songs from the film.
In an interview with Dhanak Entertainment, Executive Producer and writer of the film Asma Nabeel spoke about the matter at hand.
“We wanted to revive old Pakistani songs in our film so we used the songs ‘Bijli Bhari Hai Meray Ang Ang Mein’ and ‘Sweety,’ and according to copyright laws we paid for the rights for the songs to the authors and composers of the songs. However what happened was very unfortunate. EMI sent us a claim and we also sent them legal claims. What EMI did was they took a stay from the copyright judge.”
According to Asma, the case is baseless as, Â “We have taken the rights, we have paid the people,” the producer clarified. The writer has called for support from her peers, as well as a clarification on the matter, asking to reveal who has the legal rights to the songs so they can be paid and the songs can be used in their film.
EMI Pakistan just now released an official statement, claiming to have all rights to the songs. The press release reads as follows:
“We, at EMI Pakistan, want to clarify that Muhammad Khalid Ali of Crew Films motion pictures and producer of film “Maan Jao Na†has used three of our songs in his movie without our permission. These songs intellectual property copyrights are controlled and owned by EMI Pakistan and the said matter is already being heard in our legal courts.
Please note that EMI Pakistan in response to Khalid Ali’s defamation case and stay order on rights in the civil court has submitted 7 / 11 applications that clearly states that this case does not come under civil court jurisdiction and instead this case be referred to the Intellectual Property tribunal. We have further filed a copyright violation case against Crew Films and managed to get a stay order on the songs used illegally.
We at EMI Pakistan strongly condemn music piracy and illegal distribution of music and demand the producers of the film to use legal processes to obtain official permission for the use of our music.”
- This article has been updated with EMI Pakistan’s official statement
