T-Series has apologised for uploading Pakistani singer Atif Aslam’s version of the song Kinna Sona, and removed the video from its official YouTube channel on Wednesday. The music label had faced backlash in recent days, as the Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE) and the All Indian Cine Workers Association (AICWA) have banned Pakistani artistes from working in India.
According to the Indian Express, T-Series said in a statement, “It has been brought to our notice that the said song has been sung by Atif Aslam and this song was put up on the YouTube channel of T-Series by one of our employees from the promotion team. He was unaware of his action and erred while putting up the song.” The music label added, “We condemn our mistake and apologise for the same. We assure you that henceforth we will neither release, nor promote the song on any platform of T-Series. Meanwhile, we are removing the said song from our YouTube channel. We also assure you that henceforth we will not be releasing or promoting work by any Pakistani artistes.”
The statement comes after the hashtag ‘take down Atif Aslam song’ began trending on social media, and a stern warning from MNS Cinema Wing president Ameya Khopkar, who had tweeted, “WARNING TO TSERIES Take down Pakistani singer Atif-Aslam song from your TSeries youtube channel immediately else we will take a major action against @TSeries. #TakeDownAtifAslamSong @itsbhushankumar @mnsadhikrut @rajupatilmanase.”
Both the original song, composed by Meet Bros, and Atif Aslam’s version were featured in the film Marjaavan, starring Sidharth Malhotra and Tara Sutaria.
T-Series has also been involved in a controversy with singer Sonu Nigam, who has accused the music label of treating outsiders unfavourably.
