PM Biopic producer explains controversial credit line to Javed Akhtar

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PM Biopic producer explains controversial credit line to Javed Akhtar
PM Biopic producer explains controversial credit line to Javed Akhtar

New Delhi : The producer of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's biopic named after him on Saturday explained why Javed Akhtar's name has been placed in the credit line despite the fact that Mr Akhtar said he never wrote any song for the movie.

Producer Sandip Ssingh suggested that lyricist Javed Akhtar could have simply contacted them and resolved the controversy instead taking it to the public domain. The eminent 74-year-old poet and lyricist had on Friday expressed shock on social media over seeing his name alongside the movie's other lyricists, which includes censor board chairman Prasoon Joshi. 

Lyricist Sameer had also expressed shock over his name in the credit line, making the same claim that he has not penned even a single song for the movie.  "I have never written any song for such a film," he said in the tweet.

Mr Ssingh had earlier taken to Twitter as well to offer an explanation, saying the film's makers had used songs penned by the lyricists from two older movies. The songs used were 'Ishwar Allah' from the film '1947: Earth' (written by Javed Akhtar) and 'Suno Gaur Se Duniya Waalon' from 'Dus' (written by Sameer), according to Mr Ssingh.

"Thus we have given the due credits to respective lyricists Javed Sahab and Sameer Ji," Mr Ssingh said in a tweet.

"Javed sahab is a senior writer in our country. We have grown up listening to his songs. We have used one of his old songs 'Ishwar Allah' from '1947: Earth' and gave him credit," said Mr Ssingh, quoted by news agency PTI.

"I did not get any call from him and so I also did not call him. He spoke about it on Twitter, so even I replied there. But he could have called us," he said.