Mammoth scandal: American film company in trouble over money paid to Jose Chameleone for ‘Queen of Katwe’ soundtrack

Queen of Katwe, Hollywood film which featured Lupita Nyong’o, has been hit by a major controversy after it emerged that the film company that produced it wrongly paid Jose Chameleone for the soundtrack used in the movie.

Tanzanian producer and CEO of Bongo Records, P Funk Majani, has sued Walt Disney Pictures for breach of intellectual property. Funk claims Disney used his soundtrack without his knowledge for their 2015 movie, Queen of Katwe.

Walt Disney paid Jose Chameleone to use beats of his song ‘Bomboclat’ in Queen of Katwe; but apparently Chameleone stole the beats from P Funk who was the original composer. The Tanzanian producer says the beats were originally used in the hit track ‘Nikusaidiaje’ which was sang by Professor Jay and Ferooz.

In an audio uploaded on YouTube by Bongo5, P Funk revealed Jose Chameleone had been playing cat and mouse game with him ever since he first approached him over theft of his beats several years ago.

Funk says Chameleone had agreed to pay him 2000 dollars when he first confronted him for using his beats without consent, but the Ugandan singer never kept his word.

He approached the ‘Valu Valu’ singer again when he found out that Disney had paid him for using the soundtrack in Queen of Katwe. But then again Chameleone played him for a fool forcing him to sue Disney instead.

The Tanzanian producer disclosed that he had spent a lot of money paying lawyers in the US to sue Walt Disney who have since agreed to settle the matter out of court.