It hasn’t been long that Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt-starrer Gully Boy’s teaser went viral making waves across social media. The film is an intimate recounting of Mumbai’s homegrown rap scene and the musicians who defined it.
With release of the film’s Mere Gully Mein recently, there was again appreciation going around. However, it turned out that there are issues with this track as well (as was with Apna Time Aayega, which was said to be plagiarised), and this time it’s not just an “inspired” look. The track is a cover of a 2015 song of the same name. While the filmmakers noted that it was a remake, the song’s original creator has now claimed that he “wasn’t paid the royalties due to him.”
Sajeel Kapoor, better known by his stage name Sez on the Beat, took to social media following the song’s release and posted that while he appreciates the film’s attempt to trace the origins of Mumbai’s indie rap scene, he was “not informed” that his track was being used for the film until recently, nor that it would be a cover instead of his original and, perhaps most pertinently, he was not paid royalties for it, despite having a contract with the makers.
