- Sonu Nigam and Babul Supriyo argued in 2005 over music royalties at Aadesh Srivastava's party
- Babul Supriyo compared their fallout to Lata Mangeshkar and Mohammed Rafi's royalty dispute
- Lata and Rafi stopped singing duets for nearly three years due to royalty payment disagreements
Sonu Nigam and Babul Supriyo had a heated argument back in 2005 when they attended music director Aadesh Srivastava's birthday party at the Sun-n-Sand Hotel in Juhu, Mumbai. The conversation, which was initially about music royalties, soon turned into an argument. In a recent conversation, Babul Supriyo compared it to a similar fallout between Lata Mangeshkar and Mohammed Rafi.
Babul Supriyo told SCREEN, "A similar fallout happened even between Lata Mangeshkar and Rafi Sahab; it was over the same thing. It's best to move forward. Whatever misunderstanding happened was in the past; he is doing a great job right now. The older musicians are helping singers who don't get to earn now, so it's taken a good direction; music companies have accepted that fact. It's a good fight that they have fought."
Speaking on the topic of royalties, the singer added, "We used to have royalty contracts earlier. I still get royalties for HMV contracts for albums from 1998-99. But the royalties only came for hit songs, and it was based on whatever the company wanted to pay you. Indeed, artists with one or two hit songs didn't get royalties; they were deprived of them. Back then, my fear was very similar to what Rafi Sahab had. A lot of music companies demanded shares from the shows we did."
Furthermore, he explained the amount of hard work that went into doing those shows and why he simply 'refused' to give up his share. He recalled how he lost a lot of songs because of the same.
"During Main Hoon Na, AR Rahman had asked for IP rights, but it led to some controversy. Sonu and I are in a good space now; he, Anupji, Shaan, and other older singers are doing a great job. The revenue model today has changed drastically. The amount of money being generated in music, even though CDs and cassettes have been discontinued, has changed because of the digital world. It has multiplied. Whatever is happening right now, and whatever the movement was, has reached a happy space. Everyone is part of it, so we should all let bygones be bygones and move forward," concluded Babul Supriyo.
About Lata Mangeshkar-Mohammad Rafi Fallout
Differences over royalty payment on their duets led to Lata Mangeshkar having a bitter moment with Mohammed Rafi and they stopped singing together for nearly three years, a biography of the late singer says.
In Mohammed Rafi: My Abba - A Memoir, daughter-in-law Yasmin Khalid Rafi brings out many unknown facets of the man who came to be regarded by many as the greatest playback singer the Hindi film industry has ever known.
"In the beginning of 1960, there came a phase when Lata Mangeshkar fell out with Mohammed Rafi and stopped singing duets with him. They did not work together for two-three years. Lata sang with Mahendra Kapoor and Suman Kalyanpur sang with Rafi during this period," writes Yasmin.
"Their differences arose over the issue of royalty payments on the songs sung by them. Lata wanted to be paid royalty and raised the issue with the producers; she expected Rafi to support her point of view, which was in fact justified."
"But contrary to her expectations, Rafi took a different stand. He opined, 'When the producer pays the fee the singerdemands for a song, thereafter the singer should not have a share in the royalty.' This was probably a hasty decision,taken without careful consideration," the book, published byTranquebar Press, says.
Late music director Jaikishen finally managed a reconciliation between the two. The first duet Rafi and Lata Mangeshkarrecorded together after this episode was for the film PalkonKi Chhaaon Mein.
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