Rapperiya Baalam says nobody asked him.

The Rajasthani rapper and folk artist has alleged that his track 'Shoorveer,' a tribute written for Maharana Pratap, turns up in Mirzapur: The Movie without his permission or a credit anywhere. The film opened in theatres on Friday, September 4, and it didn't take long for Baalam to find his song sitting under a scene about gangsters.

He posted about it on Instagram, and he did not sound like a man doing a promotional favour. "Today, my heart is broken," he said. "You might say I should be happy because my song is in Mirzapur. But the Mirzapur team did not take my permission to use my song. Who gave them the permission? I certainly did not."

His real objection isn't just the missing credit line. It's the context. 'Shoorveer' was written for Maharana Pratap, and Baalam says the film uses it to soundtrack its villains. "We are using this song to glorify the villains in the movie," he said. "Is this right?"

He was clear that he isn't against the song appearing in a Bollywood film. He's against how it got there. "If the Mirzapur team had approached me and said, 'Rapperiya bhai, we want to use your song,' we would have given them 10 ideas," he said. "But taking the song without permission is not right."

Baalam also went after the paperwork question directly, asking who exactly cleared the rights on the other end. "I don't know who gave you these rights or from whom you obtained them," he said. "Whoever gave you the rights, I would like you to ask them: do you have any copyright?"

For Baalam, this isn't a business dispute alone. He frames it as a matter of regional and cultural respect. "This is an insult to Rajasthan," he said. "It is an insult to Maharana Pratap ji, and we will not be able to tolerate this."

There's a strange twist in his own reaction, though. Even as he's upset about the way it happened, he admits the exposure has been enormous, thousands of DMs from people who recognised the track mid-film. "Of course, your enthusiasm brings a lot of messages," he said. "But, Mirzapur team, you should have done this properly. You should have spoken to me."

He signed off without spelling out specifics, only that "whatever action needs to be taken will continue." Read that as legal notice, public pressure, or both.

The makers of Mirzapur: The Movie, directed by Gurmeet Singh and written by Puneet Krishna, haven't responded to the allegation as of now. The film has been a big theatrical swing for a franchise that built its name on streaming, and it's currently doing brisk business at the box office. Whether Baalam's claim turns into a formal complaint, a settlement, or nothing at all depends on what the production house says next, and so far, it's saying nothing.