On March 26, 2020, a music video featuring actor Jacqueline Fernandez and rapper Badshah was released. The song, titled Genda Phool is reportedly a fusion track that mixes folk music with urban sounds. While the song has already gained over 60 million hits on YouTube so far but it has also landed into trouble for copyright issues.
The Genda Phool song has a line “Borlok er Bitilo, lomba lomba chul…..lal genda phool”, from the original folk song Borloker Bitilo. This originally folk song was originally written by Ratan Kahar in the 1970s who did not receive any credit in the music video which has violated the Indian Copyright Amendment Act 2012.
Now according to a report in India Blooms, Arghya Bose, a Doctoral researcher in France addressed to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, “In the capacity of a common but responsible citizen of your state, Madam Chief Minister, I feel obliged and responsible to bring to your notice exploitation of the poor artists of the state of West Bengal at this level by apparently world-renowned artists. It is, indeed, the moral responsibility of the entire population of the state, and more so, the government of the state to protect the interests of the artistic communities of our country.”
She continued, “Your government has always shown sensitivity, empathy and appreciativeness to the rich intellectual and cultural diversity of Bengal, which has been one of the many foundations of the popularity of your government. I write this mail to you hoping that you will be able to act in favour of Mr. Kahar in this regard, and obtain for him the intellectual and material remuneration that is due to him.”
The music label Sony Music India and rapper Badshah are yet to react to these charges.