MUMBAI: Lyricist and MP Javed Akhtar has been at the forefront of fighting to get the copyright act amended, keeping in mind the interests of the music creative community over the past three years. He has passionately spoken about the rights of musicians on almost every platform. Another one came his way on 17 May 2012 when he spoke in Parliament about the plight of the music creative community and about the Copyright Amendment Bill 2012. He gave Radioandmusic.com the right to carry his speech in toto. Read on to find out what he said:
One I must immediately declare that whatever I am going to say will have something to do with this bill under consideration which has something to do with the music industry and I work for the industry. My relationship with music is what a farmer’s relationship is with agriculture or a lawyer’s connect is with judiciary. So, I hope it will not be considered as any kind of conflict of interest.
Let me come back to where I started, the problem that I and my other friends from the industry are into. This problem has existed for many years now but the artiste from the earlier era used to think that there will be no one to listen to them. But now people and situations are changing with time, and I hope that the law of the country and the destiny of these artistes will also change. The confidence with which I am speaking on behalf of the artiste of the country is that people sitting in the session today are listening to my speech with full heart and dedication. And I guess when the matter is related to the singers of the country it should be heard to with this amount of dedication, as this country belongs to singers. I am not saying this because it may sound pleasing to the ears, but this is a truth.
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Which is the other country in the world that has two traditions of classical music from the ancient period just like ours- Hindustani and Carnatic? Which is the other country that has variety of colours in their Lok Sangeet, in our country you can go from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, Maharashtra to Manipur you will find different colours of music, which is the other country which has the names and the works of writers and shayars in their sacred/ holy book. But in India you will find it in Guru Granth Sahibji, Ramcharit Manas – “Raghu Kul Preet Sada Chali Ayi, Pran Jaaye Par Vachan Na Jaaye” Raja Dashrath said this to Kaikeyi in the words of great poet Shri Tulsidas. Which is the other country in this world which has songs for every situation right from the birth to the last moments of life,’ ‘Woh Ehsaas Jiski Manzil Ho, Woh Bhawna Ki Koi Ruth Hoon’ you will get songs for all kinds.
Let us take the film songs which when released are film songs but as time passes by they become Lok Geet. As the time passes by people forget the name of the film and the artiste and the songs become immortal. These songs become the part of your past memories. Today when you hear to old melodies you feel that someone has kept a hand on your young life, reliving your past memories. When did you hear this song and with whom and sometimes you even remember that for whom you had heard the song. I am surprised but at the same time I am depressed that this nation has legends but when you go closer to them you realize that there is only darkness in their life. For several years now, Indian singers and writers in this prevailing darkness have become dependent and helpless. But there is a ray of hope that there will be one day when we will get justice and our rights. ‘Aayega Aane Wala’ is a very famous memorable song more than 60 years old , composed by Khemchand Prakash a legendary musician of his time.
When a song is recorded there are two kinds of royalties that are generated: one is called Sound Recording Royalty which is for the owner of sound recording, the music companies or the music producers and the other is Performing Right which is for the writer or the musician. This is a law which has been existing for years not only in India but also internationally. But it is quite different in abroad because money is actually given to the writers and singers. So if Rs 13,000-14,000 got collected in India in the account of Khemchand Prakash for this song and the money was sent here. After research it was understood that he was dead and his wife was found begging at Malad railway station. This is not at all surprising for us because there are many such depressing stories of many artistes and musicians. There was a film titled Mujrim by OP Nayyar starring Shammi Kapoor and Padmini. The film poster had Nayyar playing the harmonium ‘Sur Ke Jadugar OP Nayyar’ rather than pictures of the leading actors. In his last days the legend stayed at a small basti in a fans place in Nallasopara and survived due to Homeopathy treatment, whereas his several songs were played whose royalties were received by music companies. Besides him there are several names like Shailendra who have contributed immensely in the industry. Do you think there will be other singer born like Shailendra today. So what is the reason that we are suffering when there exists the law of royalty and copyright in our country also. There is a long list of those deprived of their rights.
In 1969, the team of The Beatles got separated but just last year Paul McCartney who has written 27 songs in his entire life received 16 million dollar only for writing the songs. Elton John who has not made a record in the last five years received a royalty of 22 million dollars last year. Even in India we have IPRS who collects royalties on behalf of the artistes/musicians and writers but where does this royalty go?
This is a compulsory clause which is there in the contract for every artiste in the nation be it Pandit Ravi Shankar, AR Rahman , Gulzar or me, this condition is there for all. ‘The rights assigned included but not restricted to the rights of mechanical, digital, reproduction in any manner or format or media with the existing or future publication, broadcasting reproducing renting, translation, reproduction, synchronization making an use in a cinematographic film , performing in public , publishing in any other way whole or a part of the literary work. The rights to grant the mechanical, reproduction and publication, sound and television broadcasting transmission over the airwaves, electronically or through satellite or literary works including all forms of communication, transmission, reproduction and exploitation of the literary works that may be discovered or invented in the future, the said works have been assigned by me for good and valuable consideration.’
Isn’t this bonded labour? It’s only written in English. Everyone has been writing to get this royalty changed.
When Bharat Ratna winners like AR Rahman and Pandit Ravi Shankar are crying and requesting the prime minister and other ministries of the country to change this royalty law, then you can imagine the state of others. It is more shameful because this is a contract which is not only signed by Indian companies but also Japanese, German, American etc. But not one of these companies in these countries dare to sign these terms with musicians. What’s the difference in these companies and the East India Company? What’s the difference between these companies and Mir Jaffer? It’s not about the film, you are disrespecting creative professionals. When the companies have such a strong grip, marketing gets strong and creativity gets suppressed. The question is not only of money but of respect and dignity to the artiste and musicians of the country.
They order us, these music companies. Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma was called by a music company in the last few days and was told that we intend to make a record with you but the problem is that you start very slowly so instead you start with the fast beats that you play at the end of the concert, and then it will be fine for us. This was dictated by a music company to the maestro Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma. The legend reverted saying that you can work with a band that plays at Navratri festival. I have also faced such situations -once I was with a music company owner and he asked me to change a word. He told me that word is not being used these days, so please remove it. I told him I can’t work like this, I can’t change it. He respected me a lot, and he listened to me, hiring someone else in my place.
The people who are against the bill, what is their stand? They say that the lyricist have written the song to which someone has given music but the music producer has invested a lot of money into it, filming it at picturesque locations with big stars, shots and visuals. But why was all this done? This was all done for the film. He is a film producer not a music producer. He wants the song for the film and so he records the song for the film. We are not asking anything from the films even if it is a super hit or a flop, we are not related to it in any ways. I have written a number of super hit films like Sholay, Deewar, Trishul but not even one producer came to me and appreciated my work monetarily. The songs are for the film and we do not take any credit if the film is a hit or a flop. When the songs are used besides that movie at other places, the government had made a law saying that the royalty for usage outside will be shared on 50-50 basis. But we artistes stood up and said that it will not sound good if it is this way let us give them 75 per cent and it was changed because of us. This was our integrity towards the entire issue but they don’t want 99 percentinstead they want 100 per cent. If this is the case, so let’s take an example that Shahrukh has worked for a movie and his shots are taken – whether it is a flop or a success – and used in an advertisement, so Shahrukh will obviously tell that I had given the shot for the film how did you use it in the ad, this is what my question is? We are not claiming the rights of the songs for which we have composed when you use it somewhere else there also we have given away 75 per cent to the music companies, what is the problem in giving us 12.5 per cent share. All the artistes of this country are standing before the government and opposition with folded hands saying this to be raised to 25 per cent on a non-assigned basis.This is greed. What is wrong with Child labour? There are minimum wages? There is dowry. What is wrong with these? But yes the government discourages it.
I would like to quote Shakespeare as I believe at least he has the rights for his works: ‘Tis time to fear when tyrants kiss’
The music companies are against them, what will happen to the writer if he does not have these rights? There are quite a few people who have pleaded with folded hands and I can read out the names:-
Pandit Ravi Shankar
Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma
Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia
Shubha Mudgal
Vishal Bhardwaj
Gulzar
AR Rahman
Zakir Hussain
Prasoon Joshi
Amjad Ali Khan
Ayaan Ali Khan
Amaan Ali Khan
Vishal-Shekhar
Raviji and Jagjit Singh passed away in the wait.
It is said that the royalty should be on the new works not the old songs, which I agree to some extent. Any law cannot be applicable in retrospective but from now when the song is played we will receive the royalty. We will forget whatever has been done or not done for us so far. So many musicians, artistes and singers cannot be wrong and on the other side there are multi nationals and big music producers who are pretending that they are in loss. The upfront money goes to 10-12 producers otherwise the rest of them don’t receive a penny. In fact for the first time these small producers will get their share when the bill will come into action, because we will have the publishing rights and they will be the producers. Otherwise music companies take away everything and sell it. So 90 percent producers are going to be benefitted by the bill and the 10 percent who are thinking that they will be in loss, will also be benefitted because they are selling it cheap today.
But till the time this bill is not passed this injustice will continue, this theft will continue, this is a darkness in which we are walking. This bill should be passed right at this moment.
