Controversy over ‘Paloh’ song

BY ZIEMAN

PETALING JAYA: The controversial movie Paloh has been hit by another storm, this time over the origin of its theme song sung by pop queen Siti Nurhaliza. 

The song Tetap Di Sini is supposed to have been a three-year-old composition by musician Hadi Hassan but in the movie, it is credited to another songwriter, Aiman. 

Karyawan deputy president Freddie Fernandez confirmed there had been a complaint on the matter. 

“I have been told that Hadi met Aiman and Suria Records officials recently. He showed evidence to prove that the song was his. He has also lodged a police report,” he said.  

Hadi, who is also a Karyawan council member, has asked his lawyer to look into the matter. 

“If the claim is justified, Paloh’s producers should take the necessary measures to amend the composition credits whether in the movie or music videos. It’s important to put this on record,” Fernandez said. 

Paloh was produced by Finas and Filem Negara. 

Fernandez advised all composers to be more respectful of intellectual property. 

“In this case, the musician is not interested in pressing charges as he only wants the credit and compensation due to him,” he said. 

Hadi is well known in the local advertising jingles industry and is the younger brother of Salamiah Hassan, a popular female ballad singer from the 1980s. 

Hadi could not be contacted for comment but his lawyer Osman Mahfar said they were “investigating” the matter. 

Aiman, whose real name is Zulkifli Majid, said the song was sent to him through the mail and not credited to anyone as the composer. 

“We decided to use 'Aiman' as the composer, hoping that the real composer will own up. It was actually a technical error and the matter has now been resolved. We will be sorting out the royalty and compensation that’s due to him and amend the credit title of the CD soon,” said Aiman, a freelance composer who has done music scores for the movies Embun and KL Menjerit. 

Paloh first ran into controversy after director Adman Salleh was sacked by supervising producer Jurey Latiff Rosli of World Evolution Brain on March 13.  

Adman was reinstated after Finas director-general Datuk Shariff Ahmad intervened. 

The controversy continued when Adman claimed Paloh was “restructured” during his short absence and the final editing process had caused some “technical errors” that made the story flow “disjointed.” 

Movie critics have given negative comments, especially on the “flashback” technique used which they said was confusing. 

The movie, produced for RM3.8mil, raked in only about RRM80,000 for the first five days of general screening.