The Copyright Battle Behind India’s Nostalgia Wave
Abstract
The boom around the 1990s Bollywood songs have critically exposed an important structural fault in India’s music copyright landscape. Contracts that were written in that era assigned rights only for specific uses like for CDs or cassettes since nobody anticipated technologies like streaming, sync licensing or social media monetization. There might exist several parties as the owner of a song like producers, labels, composers and collective rights bodies along with the introduction of changes through the 2012 Copyright Amendment Act can result in several people claiming right over the same old song. This piece argues that there is an urgent need for reforms in contracts and licensing practices using the fragmentation of ownership and the Bhagnani-TIPS dispute.
Introduction
Nostalgia was never meant to be a legal battleground, yet the commercial afterlife by 2026, of the 90s bollywood music had begun a sense of legal uncertainty in the minds of people on who actually owned it. A video got leaked from the sets of Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai in early 2026 wherein Varun Dhawan was seen dancing to the recreated song of Chunari Chunari, which rushed a feeling of nostalgia in the hearts of the viewers. The famous producer Vahu Bhagnani felt the other way, as he claimed that TIPS Music recreated the iconic 1999 song from the movie Biwi No. 1 without taking permission from his company Pooja Entertainment. He later filed a suit in Bombay High Court, claiming Rs.400 crore damages. This matter is currently pending before the Bombay High Court. On 3 June 2026, the court had dismissed Bhagnani’s plea for an interim injunction in order to stop the release of the film, which led to the releasing of Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai as it was scheduled and the Rs.400 crore damages suit was posted for further hearing. The simple yet deceptive argument that flowed in this dispute was that producers in that era had signed away only music rights, and they had not anticipated technologies like streaming platforms, social media or OTT services back then. The central question that lied was who the actual owner of these songs was.
The Nostalgia Economy: How 90s Bollywood Music Conquered Instagram and OTT
The era of the 90s was relived when classics along with Udit Narayan- Alka Yagnik duets went all over again viral in 2025 that pulled all the millennials and the Gen Z’s into listening to it again. All of this happened because of Instagram reels and short-form videos, making the songs from 60s to 90s dominating everybody’s playlists. The movie, “Rocky aur Rani” produced by Karan Johar was made explicitly with the intention of honoring the Hindi Film music from the 1960s through 1990s. This resulted in Saregama, India’s oldest music label, earning huge profits with all the viral remixes and the outreach of the trending Instagram reels. Producers found out that this isn’t just a source of providing nostalgia to the people, but also a source of revenue.
Layers of Ownership: Understanding Music Rights Under Indian Copyright Law
During the 1990s, producers or music labels used to sign away the rights of a song from composers and lyricists for a one-time lump sum payment, with no additional entitlement of royalties, even though their work was exploited for years through the new mediums. There exists two layers of rights of a song under the Indian Copyright Act, of which first is the master rights which are held by the producers or the music label over the final song recording, and second is the underlying rights which are on the melody and lyrics and are absorbed by the same production house. There also exists a third, but a very important layer, that is the sync rights which is used to match the music to the media visuals like films or ads. The Copyright (Amendment) Act,2012 added provisos to section 18 which prohibited the authors of literary or musical works from not receiving their royalties and it entitled them to at least 50% share in any royalties that would be generated outside the cinema hall exhibitions. Suddenly, after the introduction of this Act, the earlier contracts which seemed clear, now seemed uncertain.
Who Really Owns a 90s Bollywood Song? The Complex Web of Rights Holders
There may exist numerous rightful owners of a single 1990s Bollywood song like a film producer holding copyright of the song as a cinematographic work, music label holding master rights over sound recording, IPRS on behalf of composers and lyricists holding literary and musical rights while PPL on behalf of producers and labels handling the public performance and broadcast licensing over the actual sound recording. So, a venue, platform, or a filmmaker who is using the recorded music has to get two licenses- one for recording from PPL and the other for composition from IPRS. Post-2012, in addition to any kinds of earlier assignments, composers and lyricists held additional royalty claims. A perfect example of this is the Bhagnani-TIPS dispute wherein Puja Entertainment argued that their original agreement only allowed TIPS to music audio rights and that they cannot extend those rights to recreate the song and include it in a completely new film. So, it is quite difficult to know who really is the actual owner of a song as there does not exist a centralized database for music rights in India.
The Way Forward: Four Urgent Steps to Fix India’s Music Copyright Chaos
The following are the four steps that must be inherited on an urgent basis. First is that every label that owns a 1990 catalogue must review their contracts in order to know what were the actual rights that were assigned to them, rather than being on an assumption that they were the owners of all the rights. Second is that there is a need for streaming platforms to include tighter indemnification clauses in their contracts because as we saw, how in 2023, due to failed license renewal negotiations between Zee Music and Spotify, it led to Spotify removing Zee Music’s whole catalogue, which further led to millions of users not being able to access Zee Music’s catalogue. Third is that despite the 2012 Amendment, creators face huge difficulties in claiming their royalties, which the court has only recently looked into. Thus, there is a need for giving IPRS stronger statutory powers for digital enforcement. Finally, people building content like ads, reels, covers need to get licenses very proactively and not wait for takedowns.
Conclusion: When Romance Becomes Litigation
It is a fact that the songs which made a generation fall in love are now making the practitioners quite busy. It is an irony that a song like Chunari Chunari was built to soundtrack romance, but today it is involved in a suit having Rs.400 crores as damages. It is quite important that India’s copyright framework comes in line with the intent that the 2012 Amendment sought to provide because with the commercial reality of streaming, reels and sync deals, every nostalgia wave would certainly carry a burden of litigation in its wake.
References
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Nyay Bhushan, The Hollywood Reporter, ‘Indian Copyright Act Amendments Give Music Artists Ownership Rights’ (25 May 2012), [https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/indian-copyright-act-amendments-329624/]
Randi Zimmerman, Symphonic Blog, ‘6 Types of Record Label Contracts’ (23 May 2025), [https://blog.symphonic.com/2025/05/23/6-types-of-record-label-contracts-2/]
Bhumi Vashisht, The Sunday Guardian, ‘Why Is Vashu Bhagnani Suing Tips Industries And David Dhawan For Rs 400 Crore?’ (29 May 2026), [https://sundayguardianlive.com/entertainment-news/why-is-vashu-bhagnani-suing-tips-industries-and-david-dhawan-for-rs-400-crore-producer-demands-hai-jawani-to-ishq-hona-hai-release-be-stopped-198144/]
FPJ Web Desk, Free Press Journal, ‘Here’s Why Hundreds of Bollywood Songs Were Suddenly Removed from Spotify’ (21 March 2023), [https://www.freepressjournal.in/entertainment/heres-why-hundreds-of-bollywood-songs-were-suddenly-removed-from-spotify]
The Copyright (Amendment) Act, 2012