Pakistani singer Abrar ul Haq, who had accused filmmaker Karan Johar of stealing his song Naach Punjaban for Jugjugg Jeeyo, has said that he refused to be a part of a Bollywood film that was offered to him. The singer also said he had received an offer for an album in India, however, he refused doing it.

In an interview, he said, “I received movie offers (from India). I also received an offer for an album. But I didn’t understand their contract. ‘You can’t speak, you can’t talk about Kashmir, etc.’ I thought that a country that believes in the freedom of expression shouldn’t say such things. So I didn’t do them.”

During the same interview, the singer said that Eros had offered him a film which also starred Katrina Kaif. Without naming it, the singer stated, “There’s a company called Eros; they offered a movie. The actress was Katrina Kaif. My friends were after me, saying, ‘If you don’t want to do it, at least let us go!’ But I didn’t want to do movies (In India)… they called me excitedly and even said, ‘No one has ever refused us, but you have. No one has ever told us they don’t want to do our films. We thought you’d come running.'”

In May 2022, Abrar ul Haq accused Karan Johar, who was the producer of Jugjugg Jeeyo, of stealing his song Nach Punjaban. He slammed the filmmaker and had threatened to take legal action against him.

However, the makers of the film had issued an official statement on social media in which they clarified that “all due credits will be included across all platforms when the song releases.”

Their post read, “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.”

Published on: Friday, April 26, 2024, 03:50 PM IST