Pakistani singer Hadiqa Kiani accuses Kanika Kapoor of stealing her song; the latter denies the allegations

Mumbai (Maharashtra): Kanika Kapoor has been stealing hearts ever since she made her Bollywood playback singing debut with ‘Baby Doll’ in 2014. The song was a massive hit and Kanika became a household name for her unconventional voice. Thereafter, the singer has released some banging hits that everyone grooves to at parties. But she has come under fire again after her past COVID19 controversy.

Pakistani singer, songwriter, actress and philanthropist among others, Hadiqa Kiani recently accused Kanika Kapoor of blatantly plagiarizing her 1998 hit, ‘Boohey Barian’. Kanika recently released a Saregama Original track ‘Buhe Bariyan’ on April 28. After this, Kiani went on a rampage on her Instagram stories, accusing the makers of copying her song from her album ‘Roshni’ and stating that she owned all the rights to the song with the poetry written by her mother, Khawar Kiani.

“I own all rights to 'Boohey Barian' and all songs on my album Roshni. My mother wrote poetry. Anyone claiming they own my masters or rights is saying so illegally and my team is taking action. We have copyright documents dated from before Roshni came out, registered with full rights and ownership. No company or entity was ever given those masters and no company has any documents with my signature on it giving rights. I have stayed quiet for long enough”, the Pakistani singer wrote.

She went on to call it a “shameless rendition” of her song and the alleged plagiarism an “easy money-making scheme”. She further wrote, “I want to make it clear I have nothing against the singer and other singers who have sung the songs. I'm just upset about the way they all seem to go about the process. Anyways, the theft of Pakistani music continues.”

Meanwhile, Kanika Kapoor has denied any kind of plagiarism of the song. “Anyone who goes and listens to the song (Buhe Bariyan by Kanika Kapoor) will know that it is an original song, from antras to everything. We have just used the hook line of an old folk song. According to me and the label, it is a folk song. There are many versions of the song that we have heard online, and nobody has ever said anything about it.”

She claimed her version of the song to be an original composition, further adding, “We have not copy-pasted any old folk song. We used two lines as inspiration. It is very unfair to the writer Kunwar Juneja and Shruti Rane who composed this new song. Also, it is unfair to me if anybody says that I am trying to steal someone’s work.”

However, Kanika Kapoor stated that she does not hold these allegations against anyone and feels sad that Kiani thought that they stole their song without giving them credit.

What outcome this battle of words gives, now, depends on the two singers and we hope the two singers find a common ground soon.