The debate around music royalties in India has found another voice. As composer Tanishk Bagchi’s dispute with Yash Raj Films (YRF) over the Saiyaara title track recently made headlines, composer-singer Amaal Mallik has shared a cryptic post that many believe is a reflection on the ongoing conversation. Without naming anyone, Amaal suggested that the industry is only now discussing an issue he says he had been raising since nearly a decade.
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Amaal Mallik has weighed in with a cryptic social media post that many believe is linked to the ongoing debate. Without naming anyone, the composer reflected on his own battle with the music industry and suggested that the concerns being discussed today are far from new.
Posting a selfie with a short note, Amaal wrote, “People in the music industry waking up 10 years too late. Where were you in 2015 when I was fighting the system alone :)”.
While he did not directly refer to Tanishk Bagchi or the Saiyaara controversy, the timing of his post has caught attention, coming just as the industry is once again debating royalty payments and fair compensation for music creators.
Despite that, Amaal claimed the creators would have collectively received only ₹15-20 lakh, which also covered expenses such as studio costs, engineers and other production charges, without any meaningful royalty earnings. By the time everyone involved had been paid, he said his own share from one of the country’s biggest hit songs was only around ₹75,000 to ₹1.5 lakh.
The controversy began when composer Tanishk Bagchi claimed on Instagram that he was still waiting to receive ₹8 lakh in royalties for the Saiyaara title track, despite the song becoming one of the biggest hits of the year. In his now-deleted post, he said the money he received upfront went into making the song, leaving him with almost nothing personally. Calling the pending royalty amount “peanuts,” he admitted the experience had changed how he viewed the music industry, while thanking director Mohit Suri and lyricist Irshad Kamil for their support.
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Earlier this year in March, Amaal Mallik had openly spoken about the challenges music creators continue to face when it comes to royalties in India. Speaking about the royalty system introduced in 2020 after lyricist Javed Akhtar’s long fight, Amaal said actors often get most of the credit for a song’s popularity, but they are only one part of the equation. According to him, lyricists, composers, directors and singers all play a crucial role, with the creators of the music and lyrics deserving greater recognition and long-term rights. He also pointed out that, unlike in the West, music producers in India still do not enjoy similar ownership over their work.
To explain the gap, Amaal looked back at his 2015 hit Sooraj Dooba Hai from Roy, starring Ranbir Kapoor. He revealed that he was paid ₹8 lakh to create Sooraj Dooba Hai, an amount that also had to cover the song’s production costs. According to Amaal, making the track cost around ₹8-10 lakh, leaving little for him personally. While he estimated the song had already earned around ₹65 crore a few years ago, he believes its lifetime revenue has now crossed ₹100 crore.
Yash Raj Films responded soon after, saying the Saiyaara title track was composed by three musicians, Tanishk Bagchi, Faheem Abdullah and Arslan Nizami, and that royalties were being shared equally between them as per the contracts signed by all parties. The studio also maintained that every collaborator had been paid according to the agreed terms and timelines. Shortly after YRF’s statement was issued, Tanishk deleted his Instagram post, bringing the public exchange to an end.
