Badshah's latest song Genda Phool with Jacqueline Fernandez has kicked up a plagiarism storm online. The rapper stole lyrics from an old Bengali folk song written by Ratan Kahar and did not credit him
Badshah and Jacqueline Fernandez unveiled a song called 'Genda Phool' a few days ago. The song, which has the hookline, "Boroloker bitilo, lomba lomba chul, Emon mathay bnedhe debo lal genda phool (The rich man's daughter has long hair, I want to tie a marigold on it)," has now landed in a controversy over copyright. The Bengali folk song was originally composed by Ratan Kahar in 1970, but the composer did not receive any credit in the video. Ratan Kahar lives in grim poverty. He spoke to a Bengali website and said that he does not even have money to drag the matter to court.
"I wrote the song Boroloker Bitilo. The music, the words, everything is mine. Now, if people are dishonest, what can I do? I am extremely poor. Many people have taken my songs, but have not given me credit. They can't write their own songs. They used my songs as their own. I live in a hut. I write songs of the soil. I don't have the financial strength to drag them to court," he said.
Ratan, who is too poor to fight out matters in court, has not been given credit for the second time. According to his own statement, Swapna Chakraborty adapted the song in 1976 but did not give him the credit, and despite going to the recording studio, where was not allowed onto the premises, he did not take any legal action against her because 'feeding his family was more important than getting embroiled in controversies'.
However, the netizens came out in his support, forcing Badshah to respond on the matter. Now, Kahar has also spoken up and slammed Badshah, asking if the unfair practice would continue. Badshah's song Genda Phool has already been viewed over 80 million times on YouTube.
