New Delhi: Singer Sonu Nigam’s songs have been dropped from an upcoming Kannada film after his concert in Bengaluru, where he compared an audience member’s repeated requests for a song with the Pahalgam terror attack. Kannada director K Ramnarayan has replaced two songs sung by the singer in his film Kuladalli Keelyavudo.
Nigam, while performing at East Point College on 25 April, ignored a student’s repeated requests for a Kannada song. Responding in Hindi, the singer said, “Yahi kaaran hai, Pahalgam mein jo hua hai na? Yahi kaaran hai jo kar rahe ho, jo kiya tha na abhi?”(This is the reason for what happened in Pahalgam. This is the reason… what you did just now).
His statement led to outrage on social media. The police lodged an FIR based on an activist’s complaint. The Karnataka Film Chamber boycotted the singer over his remarks and demanded an apology. Now, his songs have been dropped despite being earlier released on YouTube.
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Kannada pride in question
The film, Kuladalli Keelyavudo, is set to release on 23 May, and two of Nigam’s songs, including the title track, had already been released. Director K. Ramnarayan took the call to drop them.
The title track, which has now been taken down from YouTube by the filmmakers, was a tribute to a Kannada song from Rajkumar’s 1965 Telugu movie Satya Harishchandra. The other song, Manasu Haadtade, is still available on the singer’s YouTube channel.
Ramnarayan has had a long association with Nigam. The two collaborated on the song Ninna Nodalenth for Mussanje Maatu (2008), which got the singer a Filmfare South award.
After the concert, Nigam first posted on his Instagram about his experience. “I am not a young lad to take humiliation from anyone. I am 51 years old, in the second half of my life, and am entitled to take offence for someone as young as my son threatening me directly in front of thousands in the name of language that too Kannada which is my second language when it comes to my work,” Nigam wrote on Monday.
Later that night, he issued an apology.
“Sorry, Karnataka. My Love for you is bigger than my ego. Love you always.”
But that did not cut it with the film industry.
“Connecting Kannada pride to the national tragedy that happened in Pahalgam is a very grave mistake. He must pay a price for that,” said Ramnarayan in an interview.