Total Dhamaal Controversy: Ajay Devgn Says Team Ready to Apologise to Lata Mangeshkar For Mungda

The movie had landed in a controversy over remixing of two songs.

Adventure-comedy movie Total Dhamaal has got off to a roaring start at the box office, minting Rs 16.50 crore on the first day of its release. Directed and co-produced by Indra Kumar, it has been termed by critics as entertaining and something that families and kids would like. But it was not all praise for the movie before it was released, as it had landed in a controversy for two of its songs which were remixes of originals. The film had used Paisa Yeh Paisa from Karz and Mungda from 1978 film Inkaar.

When a remixed version of Mungda was released, music composer Rajesh Roshan, legendary playback singer Lata Mangeshkar and her sister Usha Mangeshkar got upset as it had been done without their consent. The song had originally been sung by Usha Mangeshkar and composed by Rajesh Roshan, and it had featured in the film Inkaar starring actress Helen.

Director Indra Kumar had earlier spoken about the controversy and said that they don’t need anyone’s consent to use the songs, and he was quoted by Mid-Day as saying, “We don’t have to take their consent. When Neend Churayi Meri was remade (for Golmaal Again; the original song was from Kumar’s Ishq), no one came to me for approval. The rights belong to the music label, and they (owners of the label) have the right to do what they want to.”

Now Ajay has weighed in on the controversy, and as per a report in DNA, in an interview with a daily, he said that Lata Mangeshkar is very senior to them and if she feels bad, she has all the right to slap them.

“Lataji is very senior. I think a lot of people recreate songs and they don’t think like this. So, if she has gotten upset about it, she can come and slap us also. She has got all the rights to do so. I mean, it’s a fact, she can shout at us also. We’re ready to apologise if she has felt bad about something,” he was quoted as saying.

Total Dhamaal is the third installment of the Dhamaal film series and a sequel to 2011’s Double Dhamaal. The movie was released on February 22 and had also starred Anil Kapoor, Madhuri Dixit Nene, Johnny Lever, Arshad Warsi, Jaaved Jaaferi, Riteish Deshmukh and Sanjay Mishra.