Following the terror attack in Pulwama, there has been a huge furore on social media with several people demanding a complete ban on Pakistani artistes in India. While it got difficult for Pakistani actors to work in Bollywood post the Uri attacks in 2016, singers from across the border continued to lend their voice to songs in Hindi films.
However, keeping the present sentiments in mind, the production houses and music labels have decided not to work with Pakistani artistes for the time being. T-Series had released an Atif Aslam single titled ‘Baarishein’ which, it now, has unlisted from its YouTube channel. While you can still watch the video using the YouTube link, you cannot find it directly on the label’s YouTube channel. The music company was supposed to release a song by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan titled ‘Zindagi’. The song was uploaded on T-Series’ YouTube channel only to be taken off a few hours later. Many producers who had recorded Pakistani singers for their films are now contemplating getting their songs replaced with Indian voices.
‘Notebook’, a film produced by Salman Khan Productions and serving as the launch pad for Zaheer Iqbal and Pranutan Bahl, had two songs sung by Atif Aslam. Music composer Vishal Mishra had even shared the news of Atif recording for the film a couple of months back on social media. A source close to the film confirms that Atif’s voice will no longer be retained in the two songs. While Armaan Malik’s voice will be heard on one track, the other song will be rendered by Amit Mishra.
Atif and Rahat Fateh Ali Khan have also recorded a song each for ‘Bharat’, which stars Salman Khan in the title role. Will Salman replace their voices in that film too? One has to wait for a while to find that out.