By the time you read this piece, there might well be some developments on the front that this write-up is about. The core issue, however, will remain.
It’s about the film producers being up in arms over the proposed changes to the Copyright (Amendment) Bill, 2010. The Parliamentary Standing Committee headed by Oscar Fernandes has submitted its report on the Bill and may well become law soon. It is a 118-page report, and by far one of the most exhaustive such documents to have been produced. Lyricists, composers and writers, the stepchildren of the bulti-crore film industry, have been given their due.
It is for this reason that film producers are angry and are threatening to go on strike. It is quite natural for them to be irked, but not reasonable to be so. It is natural because anyone used to riches, ill-gotten or otherwise, is unlikely to share it with others. The latter bit makes it unreasonable for them to do so. For the riches in question are not theirs alone.
The film industry has already launched a campaign, which borders more on disinformation. Their argument is that if they share their royalty, it would leave them bankrupt. Nothing could be farther from the truth. They are supposed to share 50 per cent of the royalty. And this they have to do with people who, otherwise, are paid pittance.
Till now Indian laws never safeguarded the rights of authors. The “author” bit need not be taken literally here. The author of any work is essentially the creator of any piece. A lyricist who pens a song is its creator. He/she may well do it on his/her own, or come up with a song on being commissioned to do so. Like it or not, the lyricist remains the creator of a song. The Copyright (Amendment) Bill, 2010 seeks to rectify the existing lacunae.
A film producer has even gone to town arguing that since not all songs do well, it is self-defeating to pay song-writers apart from the music companies. This contention too falls flat. You must pay all those who you need to, isn’t it? Just because it is going to cut down on your profits does not mean that you can trample on the rights of others. And if a song doesn’t do well there would be no royalty worth the name. So where’s the problem?
Lyricists, for their part, have not been demanding anything more than that is rightfully theirs. Producers till now were the sole copyright owners. They raked in all the lucre through the intellectual output of their lyricists. The Bill seeks to correct this lopsided equation. The amendment will allow composers and lyricists to retain their rights over the work which may have been incorporated into a cinematograph work. Although the producer of the film will be the first owner with respect to the music when it is used as part of the cinematograph work, the lyricist or the composer will be considered first owner for all other purposes. Unfair, is it?
It is just not lyricists that the Copyright (Amendment) Bill, 2010, addresses. It has enlarged the existing framework to incorporate all stakeholders. Isn’t that fair? It sure is and that is why, of all people, it was Pandit Ravi Shankar who recently wrote to the Prime Minister hailing the proposed changes in granting artists their due. The sitar maestro should know. This country is full of songwriters and composers who spend their last days in penury while the descendants of producers continue reaping the profits so long as those keep trickling or even pouring in.
Producers are also alleging that the Bill would “usurp” their rights. They probably need to be told what the word means. This is about sharing their rights. An analogous example would be about men being asked to give up their monopoly over power and share it with women.
It is obviously a desperate situation for film producers. And desperation makes people tell lies without batting an eyelid. A classic example of such falsehood was another producer’s allegation that they were not consulted on the issue. In these days of the Internet and RTIs, it is slightly difficult to get away with such mendacity. The Parliamentary Standing Committee’s report, in fact, is there for all to peruse on the Rajya Sabha website. It meticulously details all those who were consulted during the process of studying the Bill. The name of this particular producer, who is best known for churning out carbon copies of Hollywood films, too figures as a witness in the report. So much for shameless lies.
One would remember the spat that Aamir Khan had with Javed Akhtar earlier this year. The core issue was lost in the din created by the media. Forget the spice for the moment, and concentrate on the facts. The hostile exchange of words were over the contention whether the star makes a song a hit, or the other way around. At the end of the day, Khan did not have an answer to Akhtar’s poser: did “Papa kehtey hain” make Aamir a star, or was it the other way?
The answer is not very difficult to guess, isn’t it?
