What Plagiarism? Pritam Shares Experience Of Making ‘Mashooqa’

MUMBAI- Singer Raghav Chaitanya has defended music composer Pritam amid plagiarism allegations surrounding the song ‘Mashooqa’ from the upcoming film ‘Cocktail 2’.

The controversy began after social media users claimed that ‘Mashooqa’ resembled the 1993 Italian song ‘Se So Arrubate A Nonna’ by Italian duo Bibi & Coco.

Raghav, who has lent his vocals to the song featuring Shahid Kapoor and Kriti Sanon, shared a note on Instagram calling the allegations against Pritam “completely baseless.”

“There has been a lot of conversation around the song ‘Mashooqa’ and I feel it’s important to address the ongoing speculation directly. The allegations of plagiarism against Pritam da are completely baseless,” Chaitanya wrote.

Calling the track an original composition, the singer said, “As someone who has sung the song and been closely associated with its creative process, I can confidently say that ‘Mashooqa’ is an original composition.”

“In music, certain melodic movements or motifs can occasionally evoke familiarity because there are only so many ways emotions can be expressed musically. A motivic similarity does not amount to copying or plagiarism,” he added.

He further said that calling ‘Mashooqa’ an inspired track was “inaccurate.”

“To call this song inspired by another track is itself inaccurate, because the composition, arrangement, emotion and treatment of ‘Mashooqa’ are entirely its own,” he said.

Earlier, National Award-winning composer Pritam had spoken about collaborating with Italian artiste Mahmood on the track. Mahmood co-composed, wrote and sang the Italian portions of the track.

Speaking about the collaboration, Pritam said, “Imagine what collaboration with the right artist can bring to the soundscape of a song. ‘Mashooqa’, which is shot in Sicily, is made more real and relatable by immensely talented Italian artist Mahmood, whose voice’s texture and singing style elevated the song to another level.”

Mahmood said working on a Bollywood song had been a unique experience for him.

“I’ve always been fascinated by the world of Bollywood, the way music, cinema and emotion become one powerful language. Collaborating with Pritam for this film was like stepping into an imaginary world I had admired from afar for a long time,” the Italian artiste said.

Directed by Homi Adajania, ‘Cocktail 2’ also stars Rashmika Mandanna and is believed to be a spiritual sequel to the 2012 film ‘Cocktail’, which featured Saif Ali Khan, Deepika Padukone and Diana Penty.

The film is scheduled to release on June 19. (IANS)