For years this composer, who constantly rocked our charts, has been doing it on someone else’ merit however now it looks like times are changing for Pritam. The composer was caught in hotspot with director Vipul Shah’s Action Replay for which he is composing the soundtrack.
Vipul Shah recently had a brush with the law for the script of his film Namastey London against a Bengali production house and it looks like the director’s victory has made him more aware of legal avenues to protect him and his films. That is why before embarking on the music compositions for Action Replay, Mr Shah made it a point to get Pritam to sign an indemnity document stating that upon any legal action, Pritam will be the sole personality responsible and no liability will be passed onto the production house or the filmmaker. This step by Vipul is definitely the boldest of the kind in Indian cinema as indemnities, copy rights etc are not common language on Desi soil as it is in the west.
Speaking to Subhash K Jha, Mr Shah said, “I have taken a written indemnity from our music composer Pritam that not a single song in Action Replay is a copy. How will I know if he takes something from a Chinese, Taiwanese or Syrian song?” Pritam also issued a comment on his part and said, “I have no problem signing the indemnity as it every producer’s responsibility to make sure that every aspect of his film is fool-proof. However, I do feel the producer shouldn’t always be blamed if any aspect of the film is accused of plagiarism. For instance, if there is an accusation that the film’s story is directly lifted from some other piece of art, then the writer should take responsibility for this. Same goes for other branches of film making.”
Meanwhile Action Replay is said to be inspired by H G Wells’ Time Machine and stars Akshay Kumar and Aishwarya Rai in lead roles. The two mega stars will be together for the first time since their brief appearance in Raj Kumar Santoshi’s Khakee.
