Rapper Badshah who is facing plagiarism charges for his latest single Genda Phool starring Jacqueline Fernandez tried reaching out to the original artiste for clarification.

The song which is a rejig of a popular folk song in Bengali, Boro Loker Beti Lo penned by Ratan Kahar was released last week. The 34-year-old artiste who has given many hits in Bollywood, however, released a statement on his twitter handle saying, “We had done our due diligence before releasing the song, and nowhere on any copyright societies or any of the previous reprises/version of the song was Mr Ratan Kahar credited as lyricist.” He also added in his post that, “Just as general information, traditional songs are open for recreation/reprise/sampling globally.”

The three-pager text on the twitter handle also talks about Badshah’s attempt to reach out to Kahar. He states, “I have been constantly trying my best to connect with him to be able to do justice to the situation to all my might. However, the lockdown situation has not been very helpful. It has been difficult to get through to the village that Shri Kahar is in and I am still trying."

Badhshah’s reprise version is sung by Bengali playback singer Payel Dev.