Mangeshkar sisters unhappy about ‘rip-off’ of their ‘Mungda’ song starring Sonakshi Sinha for ‘Total Dhamaal’; Indra Kumar defends it

Not just the netizens, even the well-known names behind the iconic track ‘Mungda’, are unhappy with its recreation starring Sonakshi Sinha for ‘Total Dhamaal.’ Mangeshkar sisters, Lata and Usha and Rajesh Roshan have expressed their displeasure over the track, but the movie’s director Indra Kumar justified it as paying homage to the original and passing a gem to the current generation. He added there was no need to ask the veterans for consent as no one did so when his song was recreated in a Rohit Shetty directorial. 

According to reports, the music composer of the evergreen song, Rajesh Roshan, in a recent interview, said there is less inspiration, but more ‘perspiration’ in the music industry. He added today’s makers ‘have lost confidence’ in coming up with new compositions and lauded the singer of the track, Usha Mangeshkar for being ‘competent’ to ‘breath life’ into the tune. 

Usha Mangeshkar said the sisters’ songs were composed with immense thought, sensitivity and care then and that ‘ripping them off’ arbitrarily is ‘not correct.’ 

Lata Mangeshkar also asserted that no one takes their consent regarding the songs to ask if they approve or not and asked if it was right. 

Indra Kumar has now reacted in a separate interview to the comments from the original team and agreed with Rajesh Roshan’s views that lack of originality and talent in the current music industry is an understatement. 

Kumar added that the original came out 40 years ago, but today’s generation was not familiar with it. The filmmaker gave the example of his own children who had loved the new version. The ‘Beta’ director stated that they were merely passing the ‘gems’ that the generation has been deprived of.  

Kumar said that competing with the original was not their intention, and admitted they weren’t half as good as them. He emphasised that it was only their own way of paying a tribute to the original. 

He added that there was no harm in following trends and that he might not have done the best job with it, but hurting the veteran singers and the composer was not their intention. 

On the issue of consent, Kumar gave the example of his own song ‘Need Churayi Meri’ from ‘Ishq’ being recreated by Rohit Shetty for ‘Golmaal Again.’ Kumar said there was no need to take consent as ‘Golmaal Again’ team didn’t approach him for the song, and added that the music label holds the right to use it in the way they seem fit.