When Bappi Lahiri’s song was copied by hip-hop hit Addictive and the composer filed a lawsuit

Bappi Lahiri

Music composer Bappi Lahiri had won a lawsuit against hip-hop hit Addictive back in 2003. The track carried tunes composed by Bappi da and did not credit him. Thus, despite being a hit, the song was taken down thanks to Bappi da’s actions.

Addictive appears in the album Truthfully Speaking by Truth Hurts (Shari Watson). The song takes the Hindi track Thoda Resham Lagta Hai, crooned by Lata Mangeshkar and composed by Bappi Lahiri. It did not credit either of the personalities or pay for royalties of the song. Thus, Bappi Lahiri went ahead and filed a lawsuit against the song.

The track originally appeared in the Hindi movie Jyoti starring Jeetendra and Hema Malini in the lead roles. Aruna Irani was also a part of the song.

Bappi Lahiri had composed and produced the songs for Jyoti. Obviously, the part taken in Addictive was also composed and produced by him.

A federal judge from Los Angeles barred the CD from further sales till it credited Bappi Lahiri. Released in 2002, Addictive was one of the highest-selling CD, with sales of about 600,000 copies, according to a report on Reddif.com. The CD was released in June and Bappi da filed a lawsuit in October.

Bappi Lahiri filed a lawsuit against the album’s producer Dr. Dre (Andre Young) for ‘heavily borrowing’ from his song. He sued the label for over USD 500 million (Rs. 37,51,45,00,000).

Not just Dr. Dre, Bappi da filed a suit against the label called Aftermath, its parent company Interscope Records and Universal Music. He won the lawsuit and sales of the otherwise hit song dropped since selling the CDs of Addictive was legally banned till Bappi Lahiri wad credited for the song or paid royalties for it.

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