Kanika Kapoor on plagiarism row: We had no intention of stealing anybody’s work, if they feel that way, then we feel sorry – Times of India

Kanika Kapoor tugs at our heartstrings with her latest love rendition ‘Buhe Bariyan’. It narrates the tale of uniting with one’s beloved and is packed with ethereal visuals. Riding on the success of the song, Kanika faced a plagiarism row after a Pakistani singer Hadiqa Kiani accused the actress of stealing her song, claiming that it was her original creation, with poetry written by her mother. In an exclusive interaction with ETimes, Kanika opened up about the song’s success and the controversy.

What kind of response have you got for ‘Buhe Bariyan’?

It has been overwhelming, I’ve had messages from friends who’ve got in touch with me after years after listening to the song on radio. Even my father and my brother, who never ever comment about my songs, it takes a lot for them to be impressed, have messaged me with compliments. It is very important that everybody loves the song, a lot of effort has been put into it. ‘Buhe Bariyan’ is something new and fresh for me and I’m very happy that people are happy with the quality of music and melody that we have presented.

Beyond singing, you also feature in your music videos, so what kind of prep does that involve?
You know, I’m a camera shy person (laughs). I’m still learning how to be comfortable in front of camera. And I think the more I’m doing, the more I’m loving it. I feel its only about being calm and confident. Everyone from my team tells me to just leave that shyness and be very relaxed. There is no anxiety on the sets, we’ve tried to bring about a beautiful aura. Also, I’ve never had such long hair, so many clothes on but with ‘Buhe Bariyan’ there was so much going one. And at one point I told them no, but they refused to listed and convinced me that it’s a different look. And when I saw the video, I was like, wow! It was actually looking quite nice.

The song has also been involved in a plagiarism row with Pakistani musician Hadiqa Kiani claiming that it is her song…
Firstly, I can say that on behalf of everyone that I know, we’ve always been huge fans of music that comes from Pakistan, Afghanistan, North of India, Punjab. It is just sad that there is so much hatred on a topic, which we don’t even know what is right and what is wrong. I mean, for me, we made an original song Juneja ji has written the song, Shruti has composed this song with Gourov Dasgupta, and have used a line of an old Punjabi folk song that being heard.

So actually it is not a cover version, it’s a new song completely. If anyone listens to this and it’s just a little hook line, we used from an old Punjabi folk song, which I have seen more than 60 versions of on YouTube. I really don’t whether it comes from Pakistan or Afghanistan or Punjab. I just know that it’s a beautiful song that was written maybe a century ago, maybe, I don’t know. And even the label, Saregama, is very respectable, none of us have any intention of stealing anybody’s work or not crediting anybody. And if they feel that way, then it makes us very sad and we feel very sorry. But to be honest, we also find out because none of us know the truth behind copyright.

And not just this song, many, many folks that we all love, have the same plan, there’s nothing that we know of it. So if someone is claiming right over them, it’s not something I can do anything about. But I had no intentions of upsetting anybody. I have a lot of love and respect for all fellows singers in Pakistan, and I will continue to follow and love their music. Also, I think, people should not bring religion and country and craft in middle of a song. They should not create so much hatred, you know, maybe sometimes you can deal with things with more love than hatred and that’s what the world needs today.