Why is Sonu Nigam refusing to sign the contract?

Shekhar Suman’s upcoming directorial debut Heartlesshas been in news for some controversial reasons lately. Apparently, the singers of the film, Sonu Nigam and Sunidhi Chauhan have refused to sign singer’s contracts with the producer of the film.

For those who are unaware, Sonu and Sunidhi had earlier declined to sign their contracts which the singers claim deprives them of their rightful royalty. Since the music of the film cannot be released by T-Series without the signing of the contracts by the singers, the music label has requested director Shekhar Suman to consider getting the songs re-dubbed by other singers.

Meanwhile, Sonu took to twitter stating, “Hw convniently me and Sunidhi r singled out 4 not signing d illegal, humiliating contracts… (sic)”.

Music labels however claim that certain singers are misinterpreting the law as the contract is between the music labels and film producers and not the singers. Music labels do not even ask the singers for any money in return when the singers perform at live shows and make money from the music which does not even belong to them.

There are other artists and composers too who support the producers as far as the contracts are concerned.

Singers and composers Meet brothers support the producers in this stating, “There is lot of noise lately on singer agreements which Producers are insisting upon Singers to sign. We being Composer and Singers have evaluated them both personally as well as thru our lawyers. The agreement draft in circulation is really fair as Producers will recoup their investments from song exploitation and we as Singers are free to earn money from our Live stage performances and shows. We as Singers should take our voice rendering for a song as an opportunity for getting more live shows. There are no restrictions whatsoever in the draft agreements on our performances in shows and earnings thereof. Let’s Live and Let Live and work harmoniously with the Producers and Labels by putting an end to the bad blood being created by some vested interests who are threatened by the new breed of performers and trying to mislead the singer community.”

Heartless that features Adhyayan Suman Ariana Ayam in lead roles is slated for release on Febuary 7, 2014.