Rohail Hyatt Clears the Air on Copyright Controversy of Saiyaan

Earlier last week Coke Studio season 12 uploaded three behind the scenes for three of its second episode songs including Saiyaan, Billo and Roshe. While the latter two stayed up on YouTube, Saiyaan was soon taken down and wasn’t even aired in the latest episode.

It then came to public knowledge that Saiyaan was taken down due to copyright infringement claim by EMI, the label that holds the rights for original Noor Jehan songs.

“We have claimed copyrights over Saiyyan which is an adaptation of our song and uses a sample from the original to add recall value to the new recording,” said Zeeshan Chaudhry, COO EMI while talking to Express Tribune.

He further added that since the BTS of the song were taken down from both YouTube and Facebook on EMI’s request, it is probably due to this reason CS didn’t air the song either.

Responding to the controversy, Coke Studio’s mastermind Rohail Hyatt too clarified the situation.

“We will have to acquire the licensing for EMI songs to proceed further with their remaining songs on the season and for Saiyaan to be restored on all platforms,” said Hyatt.

However, Hyatt added that he was not sure if the song was an infringement of the original as it merely used a phrase ‘Mai Thaa Mar Janiaan’ on Shuja Haider’s request. While Shuja is lead vocalist of the rendition song along with Rachel Viccaji, Shuja’s grandfather Wazir Hussain was the composer for the original.

“If it was another song that EMI might have claimed rights to then I would have been happy to accept the claim through the proper channel. However, with Saiyaan, I’m not sure if it falls under copyright infringement. Perhaps matters like this should be decided by a court of law,” said Hyatt.

Both the parties are currently in talks, and if a mutual agreement results between EMI and Coca Cola’s legal team the song will most likely come on air by Tuesday.