Javed Akhtar Talks About the Rights of Composers, Lyricists

The Indian Performing Rights Society Ltd (or the IPRS) have been around for more than five decades, but it might have landed the most significant judgement in its favour only last week. The Bombay High Court delivered its verdict in two separate cases — IPRS v Rajasthan Patrika Pvt. Ltd. and IPRS vs Music Broadcast Ltd. — upholding the contentions of the IPRS that a right to royalty was owed to the publishers of the music. “The FM stations – who for reasons best known to them – chose to not part with the second kind of royalty. Even though there was no ambiguity in the law. As a last resort, we had to knock on the doors of the judiciary,” said Javed Akhtar, chairman of the IPRS, told FIlm Companion.

The judgement is a strongly worded one, directing the FM stations to clear their dues (running into crores of rupees over a decade or so) within the next six weeks, failing which stations could face interim injunctions for broadcasting of music. The Court also refuted contentions of Yash Raj Film Pvt. Ltd, who were arguing that the right to royalty can’t be recognised as copyright. A matter of dispute for decades, the IPRS’ win against FM stations in court has unambiguously asserted lyricists and composers as owners of a sound recording, being played outside a theatre in a public domain.

Akhtar reminisced about how far they’ve come, from a time when musicians/lyricists were not even close to being acknowledged as owners of songs. “Composers and songwriters have always had a right to royalty. But it could be transferred or surrendered, by composers/lyricists to either the producer or the music companies (whoever was the stronger party). This includes artists like Pt. Ravi Shankar as well.” Then the 2012 amendment to the copyright law concluded that such rights were non-transferrable, and any contract stating otherwise would be void in the eyes of the law. “Now, no matter how powerful an organisation or a person or an institution may be,” Akhtar notes, “they can’t take away the royalty owed to anyone.”

In an industry notorious for lacking unity to speak up against any form of injustice, the IPRS has stood as a compelling and effective outlier. Before cornering the FM stations to pay their share of royalties to lyricists/composers, the body has also compelled the music companies to pay a fair share of royalties to the IPRS, on behalf of specific composers/lyricists. “Even though the law was passed in 2012, it took some time, but 2017 onwards most significant parties began to respect the law of the land.” Akhtar noted how when he took on the role of being the chairman of the IPRS, their annual revenue was Rs 40-45 crore. That has gone up to Rs 425 crore in the last financial year. That’s an almost 1000% or a ten-fold increase in the revenue of the body. 

Comprising around 10,000 members – including musicians, lyricists and music companies – the IPRS has shown initiative in reaching amicable settlements with the parties. For example, composer duo Salim-Sulaiman had alleged non-payment of royalties from Yash Raj Films (YRF) to the tune of “at least Rs 100 crore” and that it was just the “tip of the iceberg.” A first information report (FIR) was filed against YRF, naming Aditya Chopra and Uday Chopra. Talking about the incident, Akhtar says that it was “all in the past” and that by and large, IPRS had no problems with music companies. “In the beginning, we did have a battle, but we’ve long buried the hatchet. There was an amicable settlement,” says Akhtar, “and we’ve been working in harmony ever since.”

Akhtar’s Utopian picture of music companies working in ‘harmony’ with composers, lyricists doesn’t take away from the fact that Salim-Sulaiman have not scored a YRF film since 2014’s Mardaani, and Akhtar himself hasn’t written lyrics for YRF since 2008’s Ta Ra Rum Pum. Only earlier this year, it was reported that IPRS moved the insolvency tribunal NCLT (National Company Law Tribunal) claiming dues of Rs 211 crore from Zee Entertainment Enterprise Ltd. 

Akhtar believes the IPRS is more than a ‘trade union’. “Unions these days have almost become a four-letter word,” he says, going on to add, “How can a worker from a not-so-privileged background ask for their rights, that’s why you have unions representing them. But then, unions are also not the mafia.” Asked about writers’ unions, and ensuring basic, minimum, decent wage for writers in the industry, Akhtar politely requests me to ‘not drift away from the topic at hand (which is the IPRS’ win against the FM stations.)’ All-round justice for workers in Hindi cinema can wait, for now maybe we should probably savour the win for the lyricists and composers.