Khaled Anum wants more from ‘Peera Ho’

Veteran singer believes that Strings and Jami should have sought his permission before including song on Moor’s...

KARACHI:

With EMI and the makers of Bajrangi Bhaijaan having dominated the news for the past few weeks due to the stand-off over the copyrights of Bhar Do Jholi, a similar controversy – although lighter in nature – seems to be building up regarding String’s use of the song Peera Ho.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, Khaled Anum who famously produced his own derivative of the Shah Hussain kalam expressed his dismay at the director and music producers of Moor, Jami and Strings, for using the song without his consent.

“The credit that lyrics are by Anwar Maqsood is incorrect,” stated the singer. According to the veteran singer even the arrangement of the song is very similar to the rendition he had done more than a decade and a half ago for an episode of Mystery Theater.

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“I am sure that if anyone hears the track, the first thing they would say is that this song has previously been done by Khaled Anum,” he added.

Although Faisal Kapadia from Strings refused to comment on the matter, Jami the director of Moor clarified that as far as they were concerned they had all the bases covered. “We had spoken to Arshad Mehmood and EMI regarding Peeran Ho and they told us that it was a folk song and we were free to use it,” explained Jami.

He did acknowledge that attributing the lyrics to Anwar Maqsood could’ve been a ‘mishap’ and people should not read so much into it as, “Such things tend to happen.”

However, representatives of EMI Pakistan denied giving any suggestions to Jami regarding Peera Ho.

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Anum, known for his work on television, stage and music, had said that as far as he was concerned he had no problem with the poetry and was more focused on the “credit and rendition of the song”.

“There is something called ethics. I have known Strings and Anwar Maqsood for a long time and I had expected them to at least give me a phone call, informing me that they were doing their own rendition of the song – I wouldn’t have said no.”



Anum, who is not looking to contest this matter or press for persecution noted that he was only seeking credit – not just for himself but all those the song concerned. “I have always given credit to Saeein Khawar whenever I have done this song. Even Saaein Akhtar (son of Saeein Khawar) asked me for permission when he performed this song, saying that it was now my song after his father’s death – that is respect.”

Peera Ho was initially released with a video on Music Channel Charts, produced by Combined Productions, after which it was once again released by the record label Sound Masters during the late 1990’s.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 31^st,  2015.

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