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About ItwoFS

ItwoFS sightings in the media!

Man's World, October 2008 - JPG
Prem Panicker's Smoke Signals - Link
The Kamla Bhatt Show - Link
National Public Radio (NPR), US - Marketplace - transcript and mp3 are available here
DNA - February 21, 2008 - JPG | Online
Rave India - August 2007 - JPG

CNBC Panel discussion on plagiarism in Indian film music - April 16, 2007 - Part
One | Two | Three
Moneycontrol.com - April 17, 2007 - HTML
DNA, Mumbai - April 8, 2007 - HTML
CNN IBN - April 3, 2007 -
News item | Video (IBNlive) | Video (Alternate link)
The Hindustan Times - Sunday Sentiments, New Delhi - March 25, 2007 - JPG
The Hindu - Metro Plus, Chennai - March 14, 2007 - JPG
Times of India, New Delhi - December 3, 2006 - JPG
Calcutta Times (TOI) - November 23, 2006 - JPG
India Today, Tamil - November 1, 2006 - JPG
Mid Day, Bangalore - October 9, 2006 - JPG
Economic Times - October 1, 2006 - JPG
Marie Claire, Indian Edition - September 2006 - JPG
Asian Age - September 10, 2006 - PDF
Deccan Chronicle - September 10, 2006 - JPG
Maharashtra Times - August 9, 2006 - HTML (English translation, courtesy Kizzy)

 
What is ItwoFS?

ItwoFS is simply Inspirations in Indian Film Songs!

And how does one pronounce the name of this site? Its eye-too-ef-es!

The motive of this site is straight and simple - to provide a comprehensive list of musical inspirations (sometimes subtle and intelligent but mostly downright blatant!) of Indian film music composers. The list is constantly growing and the most important source of additions is the mails from this site's visitors! And yes, this site focuses more on inspirations from international sources, rather than from inter-language inspirations in India. So I save considerable web space by not including Anand Milind's inspirations from Ilayaraja and A R Rahman! :-)

Another key aspect is the difference between getting inspired to create the tune itself and using bass/ beats/ rhythm loops from foreign sources. Those songs listed which have their basic tunes inspired would have a prominent
<TC>  mark adjacent to them to denote a tune copy. Those without the <TC> mark signify use of rhythm loops, beats/ bass and so on. One cannot judge the intentions of the composer in both cases but yes, when a composer copies a tune, its generally assumed that his imagination is dry! This, notwithstanding the kind of excuses they give - "the producer came to me with the CD and said use this" and so on!

More on music plagiarism

 
History of ItwoFS

Ever wondered how I got the idea to start this site? It was a mention about one of my 'exploits' in India Today. This was way back in 2001. I used to upload edited audio clips of copied and original tracks in a free server called Prohosting and used to post those links as proof in a oft-visited 'Copied songs' thread in TFM page! This included the 2 famous lifts in Nadeem Shravan's Dhadkan, both lifted from the Middle East. Apparently the news spread fast and India Today did a piece on it in their back page in the issue dated September 3, 2001, with a mention of the link where I had uploaded it! Its a different story that they had printed the URL incomplete! But that was the beginning. I decided to catalog the whole thing instead of having it in a free server and posting it in a message board. Used to hang around in a free geocities server, then iespana and now my own server! Long way huh? Click on the thumbnail for a larger view...opens in a new window/ tab!

 
An FAQ that should've been listed first

1. I think the site sucks and that you hate Nadeem Shravan.
I understand that getting to a dispassionate state I'm in would take time. But to answer that two-part question - Thank you. And, no.

2. Hey, I know where that song is lifted from. If I send you the info what will you give me?

An index page credit.

3. Who should I address the mail to?
Karthik. No, there are no hordes of researchers burning the midnight oil tracing song origins. Just me. Karthik. This is my hobby.

3. So, why is that my name is not mentioned in the inside composer-specific pages?
'Cos I keep getting the information from tons of people. That Rahman used Ace of Base in Hindustani's (Indian) 'Telephone dhun mein' becomes an exciting piece of news to someone and I might have at least 100 mails about it (the reason I still did not add it is that I try and focus on tune lifts - not beats/ rhythms/ loops bought off the shelf). So, I believe the index page credit to the first source of information is the best I can do.

4. Can I quote stuff from ItwoFS?
Oh sure, go right ahead. However, please do add a link to this site so that you help in spreading the word about ItwoFS as visitor's contribution is the main source of information.

5. I've posted a lot of lifts in the group's message board, but nobody seems to have responded and they do not reflect in the site too? Why so?
There's bound to be small similarities here and there in almost any given song and I merely exercise my right to decide which one's substantial enough to be worthy of mention in the site - in the sense that the original might have substantially helped the composer create his version. Its just not feasible to list each and every single small similarity so I rather confine myself largely to list those inspirations that are based on the actual tune of the song, which I believe is the most valuable and striking part of an Indian film song...not the prelude/ beats/ loops/ oohs and aahs...with rare exceptions.

And of course, the time factor. I usually take a lot of time before I decide to add a particular instance in the site...since the site is not my day job! And I'm the only one managing this site and not part of a team! So, it'd take time. I take time finding out the background details of the tracks mentioned by visitors and also relevant audio clips, edit them and then add them, with a credit to the first person who sends me that detail.

6. I think, going by the comments and lifts mentioned and omitted for people like A R Rahman, Ilayaraja and R D Burman, I think the site is rather biased. I mean who gave you the right to use words like 'blatant' for composers like Anu Malik and Rajesh Roshan and sugar coat comments for people like Pancham and Rahman? Why can't you simply list all the lifts that you come across and avoid commenting such one-sided stuff?
I believe I have the same right as you have, to criticize this site's additions/ omissions. I do not want to paint a picture as if I'm trying to create the most comprehensive website on Indian music plagiarism. The website is my expression of things I believe are inspired/ plagiarized. If you disagree, please post your comments on the message board...the board is not moderated so please feel free to tear the site apart. That's perhaps the best I can do to protect the right to your opinion and your right to air them.

Mail me info about new sources of inspirations you come across, your comments, sources of song clips not available in this site...
 
Assorted stuff that doesn't fit anywhere else on this site!

August.22.06
@
My 100 words on Emdan Magan, a new Tamil film, with music by Vidyasagar went up on August 16th in my Milliblog. Rediff’s review was posted by S Sudha on August 21st.

Do I see a Kaavya-styled internalized lift here? Sample these!

Mine: “As a soundtrack, Emdan Magan disappoints…”
Rediff:
“Vidyasagar’s score for Emden Magan is not great; in fact, it is disappointing…”

Mine: “Varaaru is marginally catchy, which will need significant help from its picturization to impress better”
Rediff:
“Vaararu Varaaru is marginally catchy, but will need significant help from its accompanying visuals to impress.”

Mine: “Kalloori is a routine youngster’s track in the usual Vidyasagar mode.”
Rediff:
“Kalloori is a routine youth track in the usual Vidyasagar style.”

Mine: “The composer returns to his Thambi-styled melodies in Koligundu kannu and Mannmeedhu - both are beautifully tuned and very well sung.”
Rediff:
“He comes up with his Thambi-style melodies in Koligundu Kannu and Mannmeedhu, both of which are tastefully tuned and very well sung.”

What do you think…do I have a case? Plagiarism of a different kind, huh?

@ Update 1: Well, its the darndest thing! Rediff has removed the review in question! Here's the back-up version, just in case! In PDF (194 KB) | Zipped PDF (182 KB)

@ Update 2: End of the issue. Rediff removes the review thanks to Prem Panicker, who got notified about this by another blogger, Amit of
India Uncut! Thanks folks.



Hindi

Anu Malik
Anand Milind
Anand Raaj Anand
Bappi Lahiri
Jatin Lalit
Kalyanji Anandji
Laxmikant Pyarelal
Nadeem Shravan
OP Nayyar
Pritam Chakravarty
Rajesh Roshan
RD Burman
Salil Chaudhry
SD Burman
Sandeep Chowta
Sanjeev Darshan
Shankar Jaikishen
Hindi - others


Tamil
A R Rahman
Deva
Ilayaraja
Karthikraja
Yuvan S. Raja
Tamil - others


Assorted
Coincidences
Indipop
Advt. jingle lifts
Telugu
Trivia
 

© Karthik S, 2007. The content of ItwoFS.com is under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.
You may use/ quote/ reproduce content from this site provided you add a link back to the index page
of this website (http://www.itwofs.com) next to the portion used/ quoted/ reproduced.