Indian music producer Lalit Pandit, of Jatin-Lalit fame, confessed that fellow musicians plagiarised Pakistani songs for tracks of ‘Aashiqui’.
In a new interview with an Indian media outlet, Lalit Pandit, of the musical duo Jatin-Lalit, alleged fellow musicians Nadeem Akhtar Saifi and Shravan Kumar Rathod (Nadeem-Shravan) of plagiarism, and claimed that they reproduced several Pakistani songs in their albums, most popular and loved of which were for Mahesh Bhatt’s musical ‘Aashiqui’.
Recalling the phase when the duo was all the hype in the music scene, Pandit said, “Honestly, Nadeem-Shravan’s music was not of our style.”
He continued to divulge, “Most of the songs that they had done at that time were… So Nadeem would go to Dubai, from there he would buy a lot of Pakistani cassettes, [and] get them reproduce here. The entire industry knows this.”
He further claimed, “Aashiqui songs are actually Pakistani tracks, with words. Many of the songs!”
“The music of a composer should reflect their style. If you listen to ours, you’d instantly know it is Jatin-Lalit music because everything was done by us,” Pandit maintained.
Notably, the first instalment in the romance-musical franchise ‘Aashiqui’, starring Rahul Roy and Anu Aggarwal in lead roles, was directed by veteran filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt.
Upon its release in 1990, the title emerged as a massive commercial success and received positive reviews from critics. The soundtrack was the best-selling Bollywood album of the year and has also been rated 4th on ‘100 Greatest Bollywood Soundtracks’ of all time.
