In what appears to be yet another episode of “Did They Ask First?” the family of late Sufi legend Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan has filed a police complaint over the use of his unmistakable voice in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s new opulent Netflix spectacle Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar. The complaint alleges that neither the producers nor the platform acquired proper permissions or bothered knocking on the proverbial courtyard door before including Khan’s rendition of “Ni Main Jana Jogi De Naal” in the show.
The family, led by Khan’s nephew and torchbearer of his musical legacy Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, insists that copyright laws exist for a reason, and not merely as bedtime reading for bored law students. They argue that using the voice of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan in the series without consent not only overrides intellectual property norms but also raises spiritual eyebrows, given the Sufi roots of the composition.
Composed and immortalised by Ustad Khan himself, “Ni Main Jana Jogi De Naal” is a qawwali soaked in centuries of mysticism, not typically known to be paired with slow-motion cinematography and palatial chandeliers. The family’s lawyers stated that the producers failed to secure licensing rights before weaving the track into the show’s soundtrack, prompting a swift visit to the local police station, presumably without the accompanying background score.
The complaint, filed in Lahore where the family resides, is just the latest legal hiccup for the glitzy series which has been generating more headlines for off-screen drama than for its Bengal-embroidered costumes. Netflix has yet to publicly respond, although one imagines the legal team is currently discovering a previously unknown interest in Pakistani copyright law.
For a show about diamonds, this one might have just picked itself a very sharp stone.