Abrar Ul Haq accuses Karan Johar of copying his song ‘Nach Punjaban’ in new Hindi Movie

Fasih Waseem

May 23, 2022
2 min read

This is not something new when we hear that an Indian film has copied a Pakistani song. This time it is ‘Nach Punjaban‘ sung by Abrar ul Haq which was released back in 2002.

Abrar Ul Haq, the singer of Nach Punjaban, resorted to social media to accuse Karan Johar of ‘copying’ his song for his upcoming film ‘JugJugg Jeeyo‘.

He stated that he has not sold the song to any Indian films and that “producers like Karan Johar should not use copied songs.”

The song was used in an official trailer of Karan Johar’s upcoming film ‘JugJugg Jeeyo‘.

I have not sold my song “ Nach Punjaban” to any Indian movie and reserve the rights to go to court to claim damages. Producers like @karanjohar should not use copy songs. This is my 6th song being copied which will not be allowed at all.@DharmaMovies @karanjohar

— Abrar Ul Haq (@AbrarUlHaqPK) May 22, 2022

Although Record Label MovieBox were fast to respond to Abrar Ul Haq’s allegations. They said on Twitter that the song has been legally licenced for inclusion in the film and that Johar and his production firm have the legal rights to utilise the song in the upcoming film. They also labelled the singer’s tweet as defamatory and totally inappropriate.

Nach Panjaban has been officially licensed for it to be included in the Film “JugJugg Jeeyo” by @TSeries. @karanjohar & @DharmaMovies have the legal rights to use this song in their film and the tweet by @AbrarUlHaqPK earlier today is defamatory and completely unacceptable.

— MOVIEBOX (@1Moviebox) May 22, 2022

But Abrar ul Haq didn’t take much time to reply to them either and claimed that his song has never been licensed to anyone. He said that if someone is still claiming the song then they should produce an agreement first. He also said that he will be taking legal action against them.

Song “Nach Punjaban” has not been licensed to any one. If someone is claiming it , then produce the agreement. I will be taking legal action.#NachPunjaban

— Abrar Ul Haq (@AbrarUlHaqPK) May 22, 2022

T-Series also made a statement on Twitter, stating that they had “legally obtained the rights to remix the song ‘Nach Punjaban,'” which was released on iTunes on January 1st, 2002.

We have legally acquired the rights to adapt the song #NachPunjaban released on iTunes on 1st January, 2002 & available on Lollywood Classics' YouTube channel, owned by @1Moviebox, for #JugJuggJeeyo produced by @DharmaMovies. The song is available here: https://t.co/2oLFzsLAFI pic.twitter.com/t6u3p3RA6z

— T-Series (@TSeries) May 23, 2022

However, it is still unclear whether the Record Label T-Series actually have the rights to this song or not as the singer still believes that he never sold the rights to anyone. The song that was used in the trailer had a very similar tune to the original song from 2002 but with different lyrics. Although the song still had the words ‘Nach Punjaban‘.