‘Mirzapur makers must remove song, apologise’: Rapperiya Baalam’s legal notice to Excel

What is the Mirzapur song controversy?

On Monday, singer Rapperiya Baalam shared a video on social media accusing the makers of Mirzapur: The Movie of plagiarism. He said, “Today, my heart is broken. Some of you may ask why my heart is broken. You might say I should be happy because my song is in Mirzapur. But the Mirzapur team did not take my permission to use my song. Who permitted them? I certainly did not. This song is dedicated to Maharana Pratap ji. We are using this song to glorify the villains in the movie. Is this right? If the Mirzapur team had approached me and said, ‘Rapperiya bhai, we want to use your song,’ we would have given them 10 ideas. But taking the song without permission is not right. I don’t know who gave you these rights or from whom you obtained them. Whoever gave you the rights, I would like you to ask them: Do you have any copyright?”

 

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He further said in the Instagram video, “Why wouldn’t it hurt? This is an insult to Rajasthan. It is an insult to Maharana Pratap ji, and we cannot tolerate this. Thousands of messages have come to me in DMs saying, ‘Brother, your song is in Mirzapur.’ But, Mirzapur team, you should have done this properly. You should have spoken to me.”

Soon after this, Trouper Records issued a statement claiming that they licensed the song to Excel Entertainment for use in the film. They said, “Trouper Records is pleased to share that ‘Shoorveer’ was officially licensed to Excel Entertainment for in-film use in Mirzapur: The Film. Congratulations to Excel Entertainment and the entire Mirzapur team on the release!”

Trouper Records and Rapperiya Baalam connection

SCREEN reached out to Rapperiya Baalam’s brother and spokesperson, who said, “Rapperiya Baalam and Trouper Records used to work together earlier. While Rapperiya Baalam was not a partner on the documents, he was working with them. As per the commitment, he was going to legally become a 50 percent partner with the records after a few years. This song had been released before the partnership happened; for all the songs Rapperiya Baalam made for that channel, he didn’t get paid. Later, when the partnership discussions began, Trouper Records started delaying the issue. Unfortunately, no NOC was ever signed for the songs he made.”

 

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He said that they started their own channel after this. “All copyright-related documents for Shoorveer are in Rapperiya Baalam’s real name, Ashok Manda. He had gotten the copyright made in his name for this particular song, and we later made 9-10 songs in the Shoorveer series. We have copyright certificates for all of them; we have an NOC from the writer as well.”

Explaining why they objected to the song’s usage in Mirzapur, he added, “These songs are not commercial; the idea behind them was next generation is connected to our history. We wanted the kids to learn history through rap music and know the stories about our leaders. Every artist has a dream to have a song in a good film; it was our dream too. But particularly with this series, we have some ideologies attached. In Mirzapur, Munna Bhaiyya is abusing and consuming drugs, and to portray his character, they have added this song to the background music. It’s an insult to our Rajasthani culture and to Maharana Pratap. If a youngster sees this, he will associate a character like Munna Bhaiyya with Maharana Pratap. It will portray a wrong idea.”

How is Excel Entertainment at fault?

While the copyright issue stands between the artist and Trouper Records, Rapperiya Baalam and his brother say the Excel Entertainment team should have checked the source. “The song is on the Trouper Records channel, but we have the copyright. If it’s being used in a film, it has to get permission from us. They cannot license it; it’s illegal. Even the Mirzapur makers are responsible for this; they should have checked the proper documents before licensing happened. Excel Entertainment’s mistake is that they chose a song dedicated to Maharana Pratap to portray a goon; it’s the wrong selection.”

“We messaged Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani. Farhan didn’t reply; Ritesh said his team will talk to us. We don’t want to talk to the team; we want to speak with them directly. We want to understand why they did this. We want the song to be removed from Mirzapur; it’s not made for this film. It is hurting our sentiments and ideology by portraying it wrongly. We demand that the song shouldn’t be a part of this film. We won’t permit this song to be used at any cost. We don’t wish to speak to anyone at Trouper Records either,” they said.

Rapperiya Baalam sends legal notice to Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani

A legal notice has been sent to Excel Entertainment, the singer said. Talking about the action taken, singer Rapperiya Baalam says, “We have sent a legal notice to the makers; it’s in process. Our stand is the same; we will not allow this song to be used. This song in Mirzapur spoils Maharana Pratapji’s image.”

 

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Rapperiya Baalam further added, “We want them to remove the song, issue an apology, and we have made these songs for the next generation, so we want them to build a school in Maharana Pratap’s name where kids learn about these great leaders and their history. These demands are mentioned in the legal notice too.”

Excel Entertainment is yet to react to the matter.