Thaindian News

By Joginder Tuteja
Mumbai, April 11 (IANS) Director Satish Kaushik is hurt and surprised that his ‘friend’ Anu Malik has served him a legal notice for using songs by other composers in his film in which Malik was signed on as the music director. Kaushik, however, maintains that they had come to an “agreement”.

“I really didn’t see this coming. It’s not for the first time in the history of Indian cinema that some other composer has been roped in to give music for a film that originally had a different composer,” Kaushik said Saturday, a day after he was served the legal notice.

“Anu Malik is miffed with me because I brought in newcomers Sachin and Jigar to contribute to the music of ‘Teree Sang’”, said Kaushik who has worked with Malik earlier in films like “Hum Aapke Dil Mein Rehte Hain”, “Mujhe Kuch Kehna Hai” and “Badhai Ho Badhai”.

Apparently, Kaushik wasn’t too pleased with the songs originally composed by Malik since they didn’t go well with the film’s genre, setting and narrative. He even went ahead and shot for the songs but later realised that he wanted something entirely different.

“I had a candid chat with Anu Malik and he even tried to come up with something different. However, over a period of time I realised that we didn’t quite get what we wanted. This is when Sachin and Jigar (who have been assistants to Pritam) came into the picture. I liked what they presented to me and told Anu Malik about it,” said Kaushik.

“This is shocking news to me. When we spoke about this first, he (Malik) was cool about it. I wanted to retain two songs composed by him that featured the voice of his daughter Anmol. Due to this he requested me not to have his name as a primary composer and instead put a ‘Thanks’ note in the credits. I was completely fine with it and it seemed that we had reached an agreement,” Kaushik added.

Malik, however, seemed to have had a change of heart as Kaushik started getting feelers that the composer would be taking legal action. Immediately, the filmmaker called up Malik and also sent him an SMS, both of which went unanswered.

“Still, at the bottom of my heart, I was hoping that this would just be a momentary phase and Anu’s anger will subside. He is like a family member and a very close friend. I could never imagine in the wildest of my dreams that one day I will get a legal notice from him,” said Kaushik.

So what next?

“Ab kya kerenge? (Now what to do?)”, said Satish with a sigh while raising his hands in the air.

“He has resorted to legal action so I will also have to talk the same language. He hasn’t left me with an option. I am working with my lawyers and he will get a reply soon. There is no point of any dialogue with him now since I had tried calling and messaging him. It’s sad but I am hoping this phase passes soon.”

Meanwhile the film is confirmed for release this summer. Touted to be ‘A Kidult Love Story’, the film deals with the issue of teenage pregnancy. Starring Ruslaan Mumtaz (MP3 - Mera Pehla Pehla Pyaar) along with debutant Sheena Shahabadi, the film is Satish Kaushik’s home production and also stars Sushmita Mukherjee, Rajat Kapoor, Neena Gupta and Anupam Kher.