Nadeem-Shravan
blanked out from inlay card

Perhaps such a thing has happened before. A music director not getting credit for his work that is. But if you notice the inlay cards on the just released musicassette of Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Limited’s Saat Rang Ke Sapne, you will see that the music credit to Nadeem-Shravan is missing. And it doesn’t seem to be a case of oversight, since the credit to the director and lyricist is clearly printed, while only that of the music director is omitted.

It is a known fact that the late music baron Gulshan Kumar and his Super Cassettes had taken over the manufacturing and marketing rights of the music titles of Big B (ABCL’s now defunct audio wing) and Saat Rang Ke Sapne features among them. When asked about the reason for the omission of credit, Mukesh Desai, CEO of Super Cassettes, said, “We are just manufacturing and marketing the cassettes on behalf of ABCL. It’s not our decision to omit the music credit. ABCL are the copyright holders and they will be able to answer the question.”

The concerned officials at ABCL, when contacted, refused to comment on the issue and asked us to speak to Super Cas-settes instead. One of the officials said, “The audio rights of our films have been handed over to Super Cassettes. What they do is entirely their decision.”

Shravan, who composed the music of Saat Rang Ke Sapne with Nadeem, didn’t sound perturbed over the issue and has taken the omission of the credit in his stride. “It’s okay if they don’t want to give us the credit,” said Shravan, “Because our work speaks for itself. Our fans and music lovers will know our kind of music, and that’s more than enough. So not giving us the credit for it is not going to rob us of our recognition. Also, when the film releases, our names will definitely appear in the titles, and people will know that it is our music.”

When asked if the music director was contemplating any action for this unethical act, Shravan said, “I don’t feel the need for any action for the simple reason that music lovers know our brand of music. Not giving us our due credit doesn’t matter. That the music of Saat Rang Ke Sapne is already winning the hearts of the people, compensates for the wrong done to us.”