Barnala resident to move court against ‘Udta Punjab’, claims copyright on a song

Amid the ongoing censor issues, the upcoming movie ‘Udta Punjab’ seems to have landed in another soup, as a Barnala resident has decided to move to the court against using lyrics of his song in the movie.

The movie, which is set to release on June 17, is already facing the heat of Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), as the board has demanded 40 cuts in the movie.

Sarba Mann of Barnala is the lyricist of the song ‘Chitta’, which was released by SMI Music Company on December 31, 2014. The song has over five million hits on Youtube. Mann (31) claimed that the song’s lyrics were his property and the company had sold the song to the makers of the movie without taking his consent.

Mann said the he got the information from the Facebook page of the company. “The music company is flooded with posts of the song getting selected in the movie,” he added. After coming to know about the incident through a Facebook page of the company, Mann said that he had hired an advocate to file a case against the company and the production house of the movie.

Mann’s lawyer, Dalvir Singh said that they were going to file a first information report against the music company for cheating. He said, they would also file a case against the production house ‘Balaji Productions’ and would demand credits and compensation.

Much-awaited film ‘Udta Punjab’ is still awaiting clearance from the censor board, but lead actor Shahid Kapoor hopes that the film, which addresses the issue of drug menace in Punjab, is made tax-free so that it could reach a wider audience.

The film that also stars Alia Bhatt, Kareena Kapoor and Diljit Dosanjh, is a story that revolves around drug abuse in north of Punjab and how the youth there have succumbed to it.