It’s a bleak time for Bollywood right now. There are few big movie releases with theatres continuing to be shut and the film industry continues to be attacked for nepotism and now for running drug cartels as well. So we’re not seeing the big trailer and song releases that we usually would. What caught our attention is a new song release Beyonce Sharma Jayegi from the film Khaali Peeli. Featuring Ishaan Khattar and Ananya Panday, this song attracted attention for some not very good reasons.
Released in August 2020, the teaser has already received a lot of flak and been liberally down-voted on YouTube thanks to the still-raging anti-nepotism social media trends.
The film will release via the OTT platforms Zee Plex and Zee5 this October. This song released on 7 September and people weren't pleased with this either --- 32k likes vs. 145k dislikes at last count.
So this girl is a ‘goriya’ and presumably why Beyonce ‘sharma jayegi’ (will feel inadequate) by comparison? Racism much?
It isn't just the fact that the song is problematic. The movie itself features two star-kids. Nepotism much?
Some felt that it is a travesty to compare Beyonce with someone presumably as unworthy as Panday.
Like these.
And why?
The Indian tweeple apologised to Beyonce on behalf of the people who created this bilge.
Many of the tweeple didn’t like anything about the song.
The tweeple thought that the lyrics, the actors, the music, the dance, there was no saving grace.
The song isn't particularly original sounding either.
I doubt the song created any ripples in Beyonce's world.
With her song Brown Skin Girl, Beyonce celebrates racial diversity while Bollywood still seems stuck in its regressive ‘fair is beautiful’ attitude.
One can blame nepotism or something else, but this is a terrible song and it is likely that the movie itself will be scarcely better.
What were they thinking when they made this song --- a song that is both inappropriate and unnecessary.
One can blame nepotism or one can blame audiences, who continue to accept and watch mediocre and/or problematic content. We can wait and watch to see whether the movie Khaali Peeli is any better than the rather egregious Beyonce Sharma Jayegi song.
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