Jagjit Singh’s wife moves Delhi HC against his ‘live’ concert in capital
Chitra Singh said, “They are exploiting and misusing my husband’s work, his name. I have strongly opposed this particular programme because sentences such as ‘Jagjit Singh live in concert’."
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Ghazal Singer Jagjit Singh with Nida Fazli. Express archive photo
Ghazal singer Jagjit Singh, who passed away in October 2011, is slated to “perform live” at Siri Fort Auditorium Friday evening. His voice has been extracted from various live concerts from the past and will be played along with the live band that used to play with him.
Bringing back the dead is a subversive ground to tread but Panache Entertainment Private Limited, in collaboration with Indian Performing Right Society (IPRS), has attempted just that. But the “disturbing nature” of the concert hasn’t gone down well with the late singer’s wife Chitra Singh, who filed a complaint in Delhi High Court against the organisers and IPRS Thursday.
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Chitra Singh, in a telephone conversation with The Indian Express from Mumbai, said, “They are exploiting and misusing my husband’s work, his name. I am his only legal heir and have every moral right to his intellectual property, which includes anything that has to do with his legacy, his work, his voice, musically or videos… I have strongly opposed this particular programme because sentences such as ‘Jagjit Singh live in concert’ and ‘Jagjit Singh sings again for charity’ are immoral, unethical and objectionable…”
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The court called the advertisement published by the organisers “clearly misleading” and “breaching the right of privacy and other intellectual property rights of Jagjit Singh”. It also stated that the organisers “are clearly misleading the public into believing Singh will be performing”.
However, Randhir Ranjan Roy, Business Head & Founder of Panache Media, said they have already taken permission from the IPRS to whom Singh had assigned rights to before his death.
The IPRS issues licences to users of music apart from collecting royalties from them. “IPRS had the copyrights to all of Singh’s works but has not paid the royalty to the family since 2007 which was the catch. His wife questioned the legality of IPRS and that we didn’t take permission from her. Our tickets have already been sold out,” said Roy.
But according to Chitra, the document produced by IPRS is fraudulent. Chitra had filed a similar complaint in the Bombay High Court, which turned down her plea for a stay on the concert.
The court asked the organisers to submit Rs 5 lakh to “secure the rights of the plaintiffs”, discontinue the advertisements and not hold such programme in future.
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