That8217;s My Song

Pandit signed away the copyright to his work to T-series on the insistence of the producer,long before the films music release. Even for the music of Dulha Mil Gaya,the producer asked me to sign off my rights to T-series. For Fanaa,Yash Chopra asked me to surrender my rights to his music label, he says.

In Bollywood,where the muscle of family-run corporations and bigger stars rule,this is standard operating procedure. Lyricist Javed Akhtar,who has not got any royalty in the last seven years,most recently signed off all rights to the lyrics of Ashutosh Gowarikers Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey to T-series. If I did not,I would not have been able to work in the film, he says. Music composer Shankar Mahadevan was forced to sign away all rights to Kajra re,the hit song from the movie Bunty Aur Babli to Yash Raj Music. I was asked to sign a document that said I had to relinquish all rights to my song if I wanted to be paid for the music of the film. This is unethical and needs to be stopped, he says.

It is this un-level playing field that the standing committee of Parliament seeks to set right through its recommendations on the Copyright Amendment Bill 2010,which if accepted,will make it impossible for music labels and producers to cajole music composers and lyricists to sign away the rights to their compositions. Not surprisingly,the committees attempts have been met with a storm of protest from producers and music labels. Last month,the Film Federation of India,which represents producers and distributors across India,even called for a ban on Akhtar,who has become a voice for the community of lyricists and composers in this debate. To argue that just because it happens in the West,it should happen here is bullshit. The composite value of any creative work should be seen from all angles, says director-producer Prakash Jha,who says the authors lyricists and composers of a Bollywood soundtrack should not be entitled to any royalties as producers are the ones taking risks. Authors are paid for their services at the time of signing a film contract. Why then are they demanding more money? he asks.

Music companies,already struggling with low sales,say the recommendations will bleed them further. In most cases,we are unable to breakeven our marketing budgets. Instead,the government should make laws to prevent piracy, says Apurv Nagpal,CEO of Saregama.

Music has always been the staple of Bollywood and gives it cultural distinctness,but the difference now is in how far a song can go ripped off the internet or saved as a ringtone. For example,service providers like Airtel and Vodafone acquire content from music labels like Saregama,T-Series,Universal Music and Yash Raj Music and pay music labels approximately 30 per cent of the price paid by mobile users as royalty. In 2009,according to the Wireless Federation,Airtels revenues from such value-added services VAS were Rs 481.3 crore. Again,the entire royalty is pocketed by music labels. My compositions are played on radio and TV,downloaded from the internet and performed abroad. Am I not liable to a share of the royalty accruing from that? asks Akhtar.

Despite the kerfuffle in the industry,the parliamentary committee is proposing nothing new. In 1993,music labels replaced producers as copyright owners and publishers of songs through a Memorandum of Understanding MOU they signed with the Indian Performing Rights Society IPRS,the official copyright society administering the use of lyrics and musical compositions across various platforms. They also agreed to share 50 per cent of the royalty with lyricists and music composers authors. But this condition was only on paper and never followed in spirit, says Akhtar. Producers would instead sell the rights to the soundtrack of a film to music labels for amounts ranging between Rs 50 lakh and Rs 10 crore which would fund their marketing expenses and some initial investments. They would also,as lyricists and composers in the industry attest,arm-twist the authors to forfeit their loyalty.

For producers,the biggest fear is that they might not be able to enter such deals with music labels anymore. Producer Kumar Mangat,for example,says he invested Rs 38 crore in the Ajay Devgn-starrer Aakrosh and lost Rs 12 crore. But because he had sold music rights for the film to T-series for Rs 5 crore,the blow was softened. Now with these recommendations,our losses will only go up, he says.

A handful of music labels that stayed out of the 1993 MOU,including the biggies,Yash Raj Music and T-Series,will no longer be able to wriggle out of paying royalty. Since the bulk of the music belongs to these two labels,the authors often complain of not receiving royalties. The new amendments will make it compulsory for them to share royalty equally, says Hasan Kamaal,chairman,IPRS.

The proposed amendments do more than simply plug the hole. They also make it profitable for producers not to sign away their rights by reserving for the producers an equal percentage of the publishing rights. If a song,say Sheila ki jawani,is played by a television channel and the royalty it has to pay is Rs 100,50 per cent goes to the music label as sound recording rights. Of the remaining 50 per cent,Rs 25 goes to the film producer as publisher and the other Rs 25 is split between the lyricist and the composer. Depending on the producers arrangement with the music label,the producer may also get a percentage from the sound recording rights. At present,the music label pockets the entire Rs 100 since it owns all the rights.

The new arrangement will only help producers recover their production costs through a steady stream of royalties. It will also make the licensing system more efficient as a lot of confusion will be removed, says Ameet Datta,a partner with law firm Luthra and Luthra Law Offices.