Pritam Lashes Out at 'Self-Appointed Music Detectives' on 'Cocktail 2' Plagiarism Claim: 'You're My Unpaid PR'

Music composer Pritam has hit back fiercely at plagiarism claims surrounding his latest track from Cocktail 2, calling out "self-appointed music detectives" for working overtime on a new genre: "imaginary similarities."

The controversy erupted after a section of the internet accused Pritam of lifting the hook line and beat structure from a 1993 Italian track titled 'Se So Arrubate A Nonna' by the duo Bibi & Coco for his new Hindi song, 'Mashooqa.' The music video, featuring Shahid Kapoor and Kriti Sanon, dropped earlier this week.

While the allegations quickly gained traction online, several industry voices also beleive that the track appears to be a standard case of creative "sampling" or the use of generic rhythm patterns.

Taking to his Instagram stories, Pritam wrote, “Every single one of my song releases comes with a set of self-appointed music detectives, who have created a new genre called ‘imaginary similarities,’" the composer said.

"Same people, same ‘inspired by’ thesis… Boss, at this point, you are my unpaid PR team. I just want to say, guys, not nice," he added.

Also starring Rashmika Mandanna, Cocktail 2 is the highly anticipated sequel to the 2012 hit romantic-comedy, with director Homi Adajania returning to the helm.

While the original film—starring Deepika Padukone, Saif Ali Khan, and Diana Penty—was penned by Imtiaz Ali, the sequel’s screenplay has been written by Luv Ranjan and Tarun Jain.

Produced by Dinesh Vijan, Luv Ranjan, and Ankur Garg, Cocktail 2 is gearing up for a grand theatrical release on June 19. The film marks a swift reunion for Kapoor and Sanon following their 2024 sci-fi romantic-comedy hit, Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya.

The film marks the first theatrical outing of 2026 for Sanon and Mandanna, who were last seen in the romantic-drama Tere Ishk Mein and the horror-comedy Thama, respectively.

While Kapoor was seen earlier this year in filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj’s O’ Romeo, which also featured Triptii Dimri.