Yeh saala credit

Music composer Abhishek Ray is a hurt artiste claiming that his credits for the title song of Sudhir Mishra’s “Yeh Saali Zindagi” have been “hijacked” by Nishat Khan, who’s composed the “rest” of the score.
Nishat Khan, who belongs to one of the most distinguished gharanas from Kolkata – the Etawah gharana – has stepped into film composition for the first time.Says a friend of Abhishek, “Abhishek has sung and composed the title song. His name is missing from the opening credits, and comes only in the closing credits. He was shocked to hear Nishat on a radio channel talking about the two versions of the song as though they’re his own. Because of his rapport with Sudhir Mishra, he’s keeping quiet.
But this is unfair.” Sudhir Mishra rose to Nishat’s defence, saying, “Nishat doesn’t need to steal anyone’s credit. He comes from a distinguished musical family. He’s also one of the best sitar players in the world. He composed all the five songs in “YSZ”. Abhishek came in after the film was complete. He said he wanted to do a variation on the title track. He composed a slow version of Nishat’s title track, which I’ve used with the end-titles.”
About Abhishek’s name not being in the opening credits, Sudhir explains, “I didn’t want to create confusion. Nishat is the music composer of “YSZ”. Abhishek came in as an after-thought. We aren’t denying anyone credit, but since Abhishek’s song comes towards the end, we gave him credit in the end titles.” However, Abhishek insists, “The title song is sung, composed and arranged by me. Also, the audio CD doesn’t give me credit. It just mentions my name as the singer.”
Nishat Khan said, “Abhishek is lying. I’ve composed the title track, he wasn’t even in the picture until recently. I have recordings of my compositions and the sessions to prove it. Abhishek is trying to create a controversy, which I don’t want.”
(With inputs from Aarushi Nigam
and Garima Sharma)