Javed Akhtar has dismissed PM Narendra Modi producer Sandip Ssingh’s explanation for including the lyricist’s name in the film’s poster, adding that “their intentions were clearly not correct.”
After Javed raised questions about his name appearing in the film’s trailer, Sandip responded on Twitter saying, “ We have taken the songs 'Ishwar Allah' from the film '1947:Earth' and the song 'Suno Gaur Se Duniya Walon' from the film 'Dus' in our film, thus we have given the due credits to respective lyricists Javed Sahab and Sameer Ji. @TSeries is our Music partner. “
Javed, however, did not buy this explanation.
“Firstly I don’t know who Sandeep Ssingh is. Secondly, when you take an old song in your film you don’t give credit to the original person on your promotional materialbecause I have not written anything for the film PM Narendra Modi.Javed Akhtar
The veteran poet and writer spoke to Mumbai Mirror, questioning why the makers of PM Narendra Modi hadn’t mentioned the original film’s title and music composers on the promotional material if they wanted to give due credit. “They would have done it if their intentions were correct, which clearly weren’t,” he said
“Such an incident has never taken place in the Indian film history. Nowadays every second film has a recreated song but never has the original lyricist been mentioned on posters of the film.”Javed Akhtar
Javed’s wife and veteran actor Shabana Azmi also feels the makers of the biopic intentionally added her husband and veteran lyricist Javed Akhtar's name to the film's credits list.
“Its quite clear this was done with deliberate intentions to mislead public into believing that @Javedakhtarjadu has written the songs for Mr PM Narendra Modi when the song Ishwar Allah Tere JahaN meiN is from @IamDeepaMehta film 1947Earth,” she tweeted.
PM Narendra Modi stars Vivek Oberoi and is directed by Omung Kumar. It is set to release on 5 April.
(With Inputs From: Mumbai Mirror, IANS)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)