New Delhi: Pakistani fans have panned the Bollywood remake of Pasoori, the hit Coke Studio Pakistan song by Ali Sethi and Shae Gill that acquired cult status when it came out last year. The Indian version, Pasoori Nu, by Arijit Singh and Tulis Kumar was released today by T-Series, and reviews have been far from rave. The teaser for the song had already started a Twitter war between Pakistan and India.
The consensus on the other side of the border is that Bollywood is stealing from Pakistan. The remake is part of the yet-to-be-released Bollywood film, Satyaprem ki Katha starring Kartik Aryan and Kiara Advani. Fans of the original song have taken umbrage over the fact that the Indian version does not capture the heartbreak of lovers divided. Instead, Pasoori Nu is an upbeat love song where Aryan and Advani are seen dancing in matching white outfits.
Pasoori which literally means dilemma or conflict became one of the biggest hits from Coke Studio Pakistan Season 14. The song appeared on Spotify’s Viral 50 Global chart making it the first Pakistani song to achieve this milestone. It was even performed by the lead singers, Ali Sethi and Shae Gill at the Coachella Music Festival this year.
Singh has been performing the song at concerts across India since last year, it’s only with this official remake that the question of ownership has been brought up.
The song has made headlines in Pakistani with The Express Tribune quoting fans upset with Ali Sethi for allegedly selling the rights of the song to T-Series.
While Ali Sethi has not responded either on social media or released a statement after the backlash, Shae Gill claimed she was unaware of the remake.
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‘Bollywood did what we had feared’
Pakistan fans called out India for double standards because it had banned Pakistani singers and actors after the Uri attack in 2016.
While Ali Sethi was credited, there is no mention of Shae Gill or Coke Studio in the ‘Hindified’ refurbished version of Pasoori.
Pakistani actor Adnan Siddiqui wrote that “Bollywood did exactly what they had feared”. But no popular Pakistani singers including Asim Azhar and Ali Zafar have commented on the matter.
This is not the first time Bollywood has copied Pakistani songs. Some popular hits adapted from Pakistani cinema and artistes include Dil Dil Hindustaan from the film Yaadon ke Mausam (1990), it’s a remake of the 1987 Junaid Jamshed song Dil Dil Pakistan and Student Of The Year’s Disco Deewane (2012) is a remake of Pakistani Pop singer Nazia Hassan’s 1981 song of the same name.
Indian fans have had mixed reactions to the song. In response to a tweet that Pasoori is being ruined, one fan wrote that “Arijit Singh never ruins a song, he takes it to greater heights”.
Some fans are choosing to look on the bright side — T-Series is uniting India-Pakistan.
T-Series first released Adipurush, which United whole country's population
Now, they released Pasuri, which will unite India-Pakistan under the comment section
T-Series is doing what the government couldn't do in 75 years
— Mridul Pal (@themridulpal) June 26, 2023
Others were less in awe. “T-Series finished destroying all Indian songs. Now they are destroying Pakistani songs too,” wrote another Twitter user.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)