Ananya Pandey, Ishaan Khatter Starrer Khaali Peeli Renames Beyonce Song Yet Again

The upcoming film Khaali Peeli that stars Ananya Pandey and Ishaan Khatter has recently been making rounds on social media for one of its songs Beyonce Sharma Jayegi. The song, for implying racism against people of darker color, drew ire of netizens after which it was changed to Beyonse Sharma Jaygi.

But logically that trick works with charged up netizens who called out the filmmakers for propagating racism through the song lyrics. As a result, the makers of Khaali Peeli have yet again changed the title of the song, now making it Dunya Sharma Jayegi.

“First, without any hesitation or excuses, we want to apologize to anyone offended. We assure you that the lyric in question was never intended racially. In fact, the term ‘goriya’ has been so often and traditionally used in Indian songs to address a girl, that it didn’t occur to any of us to interpret it in a literal manner,” said the director Maqbool Khan.

“Also the comparison with Beyonce is simply meant to be a street-smart guy flattering a girl who is trying to impress that her dancing/performance is worth comparing to even Beyonce who we all see as the final word, the epitome of talent, beauty, performance, style, and attitude. We are all huge fans, and there was never any question of disrespect,” added Khan.

Lyricist Kumaar also came forward to his defense, “Goriya as a word has been used in many Hindi songs earlier. Our idea was to simply use a synonym to ‘girl’. There is no derogation intended – we revere the beauty of global celebrity Beyoncé and don’t mean to hurt any of her fans.”