Bollywood music composer Pritam on Thursday hit back at ‘self-appointed music detectives’ who accused him of plagiarism following the release of Mashooqa, a newly unveiled track from Cocktail 2.
Recently, Pritam faced plagiarism remarks with netizens accusing him of lifting the track’s hook and beats from a 1993 Italian song titled Se So Arrubate A Nonna by the duo Bibi & Coco.
Pritam denied the claims on his Instagram story, calling out the critics for coming up with ‘imaginary similarities’. “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’. Same people, same ‘inspired by’ thesis… Boss, at this point, you are my unpaid PR team. I just want to say, guys, not nice,” Pritam wrote on Instagram.
Featuring Shahid Kapoor, Kriti Sanon and Rashmika Mandanna in lead roles, Cocktail 2 serves as a sequel to the 2012 romantic drama directed by Homi Adajania.
The original film starred Deepika Padukone, Saif Ali Khan and Diana Penty.
Cocktail 2 was first announced by Adajania’s wife, celebrity stylist Anaita Shroff, in July 2025. Further details about the film’s storyline and release date are yet to be announced.
Kriti Sanon and Shahid Kapoor were seen together in the 2024 movie Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya. Cocktail 2 will mark Rashmika Mandanna’s first on-screen collaboration with Shahid Kapoor.
On the work front, Kriti Sanon was last seen in Dhanush-starrer romantic musical Tere Ishk Mein.
Shahid was last seen in Vishal Bhardwaj’s O’ Romeo, which also stars Triptii Dimri, Nana Patekar and Randeep Hooda.
Rashmika Mandanna shared the screen with Ayushmann Khurrana in the supernatural thriller Thama, which released last year.