Music company T-Series had uploaded a song of Pakistani singer Atif Aslam on its YouTube channel on 23rd June. It was a cover of the song ‘Kinna Sona’ composed initially by Meet Brothers for the film Marjaavan, starring Sidharth Malhotra and Tara Sutaria.
After the song was uploaded, angered netizens tagged T-series in multiple tweets urging them to remove the song from all of their platforms. The company has removed the YouTube video with the Atf Aslam song and has issued an apology for promoting the Pakistani.
Today you are supporting Atif Aslam
— your Coffee ☕ (@Wacky_guy) June 24, 2020
Tomorrow he will become Sahid Afridi ..
India has enough talent
We don’t need any Atif Aslam.#TakeDownAtifAslamSong
It is notable here that the Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE) and All India Cine Workers Association (AICWA) have banned Pakistani artists from working in India. The move had come last year after the Pakistani government banned the release of Indian movies in their country.
Backlash and a warning from MNS
A hashtag ‘#TakeDownAtifAslamSong’ trended on social media to urge the company to remove the song. Ameya Khopkar, MNS Cinema Wing president, issued a warning via tweet. He asked T-series to take down Pakistani sing Atif Aslam’s song from the youtube channel immediately or face strict action.
WARNING TO TSERIES
— Ameya Khopkar (@MNSAmeyaKhopkar) June 23, 2020
Take down Pakistani singer Atif-Aslam song from your TSeries youtube channel immediately else we will take a major action against @TSeries. #TakeDownAtifAslamSong @itsbhushankumar @mnsadhikrut @rajupatilmanase
Apology by T-Series
T-series removed the song and apologized, saying, “It has been brought to our notice that the said song has been sung by Atif Aslam and this song was put up on the YouTube channel of T-Series by one of our employees from the promotion team. He was unaware of his action and erred while putting up the song.” The music label added, “We condemn our mistake and apologise for the same. We assure you that henceforth we will neither release, nor promote the song on any platform of T-Series. Meanwhile, we are removing the said song from our YouTube channel. We also assure you that henceforth we will not be releasing or promoting work by any Pakistani artistes.” The apology letter was issued in Marathi, addressing to Raj Thackeray.
@mnsadhikrut @rajupatilmanase @RajThackeray @anilshidore @ThakareShalini #TseriesApologiseMNS pic.twitter.com/YkoEpWPScm
— Ameya Khopkar (@MNSAmeyaKhopkar) June 24, 2020
T-series and series of controversies
Atif Aslam had condemned the abrogation of Article 370 last year that led to a backlash from netizens in India. In recent times, T-series has been involved in a controversy with singer Sonu Nigam. He accused the company of mistreating outsiders. The company also received backlash from as the Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE), and the All Indian Cine Workers Association (AICWA) as these associations have banned Pakistani artists from working in India.
