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The song, called Mera Mulk Mera Desh, is from the 1996 Hindi-language film Diljale
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Anu Malik, who scored the music for the film, is often accused of lifting tunes from popular songs both within India and across the world
Indian music composer Anu Malik is being accused by many of “stealing” the tune of the national anthem of Israel in one of his songs that was featured in a 1996 Bollywood film.
Twitter users in India were quick to point out on Sunday, August 1, that the tune being played as Israel gymnast Artem Dolgopyat was being awarded the Olympic gold medal was uncannily similar to a Hindi movie song that is often played on patriotic holidays in India.
The song, called Mera Mulk Mera Desh, is from the film Diljale, for which Malik scored the music.
The lyrics for the song — indeed, for all the songs in the film — were written by poet-screenwriter Javed Akhtar.
Akhtar and Malik have incidentally served as judges on the Indian clone of singing reality show American Idol.
While Malik has been judging Indian Idol since its inception in 2004, Akhtar was on the show between 2007 and 2009.
Malik has often been accused of lifting popular tunes from both within and outside India.
He infamously made three different songs that detractors say bear great resemblance to Spanish band Los Del Rio’s global superhit Macarena.
In another case, a song from the 1999 Bollywood film Laawaris seems to be very similar in tune to Europop music group Aqua’s chartbuster I’m A Barbie Girl.
Malik has also been accused of lifting tunes from the earlier works of Oscar-winner and fellow Indian AR Rahman.
As for the most recent accusations, people have been sharing videos of Israel’s national anthem and the Bollywood film song to prove their point.
Here is a rendition of the Israeli national anthem, Hatikvah:
The company, which owns the license to the Bollywood song composed by Malik based on this tune, has uploaded it on YouTube but restricted it from being embedded on platforms.
The song can still be accessed HERE on YouTube.