Composer Shamir Tandon, who got singer Rahat Fateh Ali Khan to sing for the forthcoming Bollywood film Welcome To New York, has defended the use of the Pakistani artist.
“If as a country, or even as an industry, we take a collective stance against working with artists... from across the border, I’m happy to adhere to the same. I will be the first one to refrain,” Tandon said. “My point is, how come the same Pakistani singer Rahat Fateh Ali Khan’s Jag Ghumiya, which was used in the film Sultan, Mere Rashke Qamar, which was used in Baadshaho, skips this sentiment.”
“Or for that matter, Atif Aslam’s recently released Dil Diyan Gallan in Tiger Zinda Hai or the Ajay Devgn song Sanu Ek Pal Chain in the film Raid released a couple days ago. Why were these songs not pulled up for using Pakistani voices, while mine has? Because most of those are cover versions and mine is an original?” he asked.
Earlier this week, singer-turned-minister Babul Supriyo asked for Khan’s voice to be replaced in the song Ishtehaar from Welcome To New York.
Supriyo questioned why entertainers from across the border were being hired at a time when tensions on the India-Pakistan border have escalated.
Manoj Muntashir, who wrote the song Ishtehaar, said: “My relationship with music is exactly how a farmer relates to agriculture. I work hard to earn my bread and butter.”
“I write so that my son can get proper education and my old parents can get good treatment in sickness. But when my personal interests conflict with national interests, I put nation first,” he added. “No writer, actor, thinker, singer, philosopher or filmmaker can be compared to a soldier who takes the flying bullets in his chest so that we can stay being a free country.”
“Singers from the other side of the border should or should not sing for us, is completely a legal and constitutional call. Whatever law of the land decides, is my decision. But yes, before being a writer, I am an Indian and this status will remain unchanged for the rest of my life,” Muntashir said.
