This time with the elections drawing near, every political party is bent to venturing into the deep with the assistance of the one industry that surpasses all borders- Bollywood.
Its common knowledge that most campaigns are using film music tracks to enhance not just their slogan but even their party's standing and overall image. However, this is bound to cause a stir, and the first being in the form of a legal notice.
According to our highly reliable sources within the industry, we learnt that the well known major record label T-Series has filed a legal notice against Span Communications, a Delhi based advertising agency which has used the popular song 'Pappu Cant Dance' from the film Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na as the title track which has been sanctioned by the election commission.
The glitch however is that though the agency has changed the wording from 'Pappu Cant Dance' to 'Pappu Cant Vote', the basic tune and rhythm of the song hasn't been changed. Thus it becomes an infringement of the copyright of T-Series.
However, when we contacted Span Communications' Chief Financial Head - Mr. K. K. Gupta, he replied saying, "We have not received any such legal notice from T-Series.
As per our project, we have been granted approval from the Chief Election Commission directly to go ahead and use this track. Besides since all our other projects as well are government oriented, we get direct approval from the system itself."
Reconfirming this, Span Communications' CEO - Mr. Naresh Khederpal said, "Span Communications is just a media agency that has released this track, while the makers of the track are the Chief Election Commission itself.
We have not done anything wrong; in fact we just did what we were asked to do. Besides the track in question was created and played first during last year's election in Delhi, during the months of September and October. We shall be airing it again this election term."
Though Span Communications has refuted the claim of being served a legal notice from T-Series, all we can do is wait and watch as this issue slowly unfolds this election season.