Esha Deol dances to Dhoom Macha Le, the most popular song in recent times

Calcutta, Jan. 2: Music director Pritam was in a dilemma. He had won the first award of his career for the superhit Dhoom but he would not go on stage to receive it. ?It was for our cause. I could not break the ranks,? he says.

Pritam was not alone. Viewers who tuned in to the telecast of the MTV Immies award presentation a couple of weeks ago could not have missed the absence of the Hindi music community at Tulip Star Hotel, Juhu.

Keeping Pritam company in the no-show protest were awardees like Sunidhi Chauhan, Kunal Ganjawalla, Sonu Nigam and Anu Malik. Even more eye-catching was the absence of Shaan and Hariharan, who were supposed to have performed with Pakistani bands Fuzon and Strings, respectively.

The big names had boycotted the programme as it was being partnered by the Indian Music Industry (IMI), a body of recorded music companies.

The companies and the composers are at war over the sharing of royalties. ?The royalty that should go to the composer and lyricists is being eaten up by music companies that have no business to do so,? says Lalit Pandit of the Jatin-Lalit duo.

Composer Aadesh Srivastava is more scathing. ?The companies are making us cry. It is a case of dadagiri over our art by dabba-bananewalas. They are exploiting us.? The boycott is the first united step that the music-makers have taken. The next leg of the battle is taking place in Calcutta, with an injunction being brought in the city high court against the election of new representatives to the Indian Performing Right Society (IPRS) committee, Aadesh Srivastava and Javed Akhtar, by a local music company.

?We are paid to work for a particular film. As long as our songs are used in that film and for its publicity, there is no problem. But if they are put to other use, then the music company should share the revenue with us,? points out lyricist Javed Akhtar. Royalty comes from four major sources ? public performance, mechanical rights (remixes, downloads and ringtones), advertising (if a jingle uses an existing song) and use in a film. It is collected by the IPRS, a body of composers, lyricists, singers and sound recording companies.

After keeping aside a percentage for the administrative running of IPRS and Phonographic Performance Limited (which administers the broadcasting rights on behalf of music companies), the rest of the royalty is supposed to be distributed among the authors.The immediate catalyst is the plum pie that ringtones are serving.