‘Baap ka maal hai’: When RD Burman was accused of copying father SD Burman in Amar Prem, Shakti Samanta’s son recalls his response

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He said, “I went to all song recordings for Amar Prem and Kati Patang, and I was there for the song ‘Yeh Sham Mastani’ as well. Pancham Da had composed the song in my dad’s sitting room. Burman Da wasn’t there, but the three of us were here. So once Pancham Da came up with the song and performed it for Dad and me, Dad told him, ‘Pancham ji, kuch suna suna lag raha hai (I feel like I have heard this before).'”

Ashim continued the story and said, “He asked him, ‘Was this a Bengali song before?’ Pancham Da sang the song he was talking about, and it belonged to SD Burman. He quickly said, ‘Baap ka maal hai (It’s my dad’s work).’ After that, he used the instruments from another one of his dad’s songs for the interlude of the album. Even then he gave the same answer, and I pointed out that even I am working on Dad’s stuff, so we are both using ‘baap ka maal’.”

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Directed by Shakti Samanta, Amar Prem’s cast included Rajesh Khanna, Sharmila Tagore, Sujit Kumar, Bindu Desai, Madan Puri and Om Prakash.