New Delhi, March 17 "Sarke Chunar" from Sanjay Dutt's "KD The Devil" is the subject of outrage due to its sexually explicit lyrics, with widespread criticism and the song itself disappearing from the official YouTube page despite being played repeatedly and shared on social media.
A video of the Hindi song, featuring Dutt and Nora Fatehi, was released on YouTube two days ago and quickly went viral for its shocking content. The Kannada film, which will be dubbed in four languages, will be released on April 30.
The song has come to the attention of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, and plans are underway to send a notice to YouTube since the film itself has not been released, a government source said.
Following the controversy, the Hindi version can no longer be found on YouTube. However, the Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu, and Tamil versions are still available on the video-sharing platform. Anand Audio holds the music rights for the movie, which is produced by KVN Productions.
The Hindi song is by Mangli, and the lyrics were originally written by Prem, the director of the movie. Raqeeb Alam is credited with the Hindi version. The music was composed by Arjun Janya.
Musician Armaan Malik and filmmaker Onir were among many expressing their dismay.
"I wish I could unhear it," said Malik, known for hits such as "Bol Do Na Zara", "Wajah Tum Ho", and "Sab Tera".
"This appeared on my timeline, and I had to replay it just to make sure I heard it correctly. It's sad to see commercial songwriting reach such a low. I am truly at a loss for words," he wrote on X.
Filmmaker Onir questioned why the song was not banned.
"And the censor board is busy with the naming of a film, #GhooskhorPandat. It's a strange country we are becoming – opposing Valentine's Day celebrations, interfaith marriage/celebrations, while being okay with this kind of content," he wrote on X.
Many others on social media also called out the makers for lowering the standard of music.
"It's sad to see how normalized cheap and vulgar lyrics have become in mainstream songs. Shock value isn't creativity. Bollywood music once had poetry, emotion, and depth – we deserve that standard again," one user wrote on X.
"The level of music today is so cheap and disgusting," wrote another.
One user on X said the song should be "banned with immediate effect".
"This is so shameful – people write such songs, compose music for this nonsense, and singers perform them. Even actors are dancing and performing on such disgusting content," wrote a social media user.