Amit Trivedi is one of the most famous composers of Bollywood and is known for creating innovative and original songs in Bollywood. Recently, he recalled that he was accused of copying the theme song of Anne Hathaway starrer One Day’s Sonakshi Sinha and Ranveer Singh starrer Lootera. He revealed that it was a pure coincidence, and also wrote an email to Rachel Portman, who composed the original track, explaining the situation.
In a new interview with Raj Shamani on his YouTube channel, Amit Trivedi recalled the time when he composed the theme song of Lootera. He shared that netizens called him a thief as soon as the theme song was released, and he couldn’t understand the situation.
“When Loota’s theme came out, I read the comments for the first time, and below I saw chor-chor-chor, what have I said? Yes, what a thief, why all the thieves started saying, copy thief, I also got this question, why are they calling me a thief? What’s wrong with me.” (When the Lootera theme was released, people flooded it with comments like ‘chor, chor’ and called me a thief. I was shocked.)
The musician admitted that he had never heard of the film One Day or Rachel Portman before. However, he always prioritized and respected the audience’s thoughts, so he immediately researched it more and heard Portman’s piece acknowledging the similarity. Trivedi said that it was a completely unintentional coincidence and that he would never think of copying anyone else’s work.
Interestingly, the subject was not one he had planned as the central piece. The tune was initially a filler used in the second song of the film, Complaints, and was suggested by the film’s director Vikramaditya Motwane to use it as the theme. However, he knew it would be difficult to explain the situation and avoid criticism.
Amit was affected by this incident and in an effort to find a solution he wrote a heartfelt email to Rachel Portman explaining the situation. He recalled, “I mailed the letter to Rachel Portman. I mean, what can I do, I’m like, ‘Ma’am, what has happened, and I don’t know how it happened. This is your article, but I’ve made one too, and somehow it’s similar, so I thought after I emailed her what she would do.”
(I wrote to her, explaining what had happened and how I was unaware of her creation. I told her it was an unfortunate coincidence. But I never received a reply. I later realized why she replied. ) The composer understood that this was his problem to deal with and not hers and mentioned that he was deeply affected by the turn of events.
Lootera, released in 2013, was directed by Vikramaditya Motwane and the second part of the film was written by writer O. Based on Henry’s 1907 short story The Last Leaf. The film’s cast included Sonakshi Sinha, Ranveer Singh and Vikrant Massey in lead roles.
Also read: Namo Namo singer Amit Trivedi talks about his bad phase after the failure of Ranbir Kapoor and Anushka Sharma’s Bombay Velvet; ‘It didn’t have to be this bad’
