Beyonse Sharma Jayegi: Khaali Peeli makers change Beyonce’s spelling after receiving flak for ‘racist’ song

The makers of Ananya Panday and Ishaan Khatter’s Khaali Peeli have made a change to their controversial song Beyonce Sharma Jayegi. In order to bring some calm on the internet, the spelling of Beyonce has been tweaked to ‘Beyonse’ in the title.

The song was heavily bashed on social media soon after its release for what many called ‘tone-deaf’ lyrics. It shows Ishaan’s character compare Ananya’s with US singer Beyonce, singing, “Ho tujhe dekh ke goriya, Beyonce sharma jaayegi (Seeing you O fair woman, even Beyonce would feel embarrassed).” This attempt to put ‘goriya’ before an iconic black woman’s name did not sit well with many who took to Twitter to protest against the song.

Seeing the flak, the thumbnail and the video title on YouTube were changed to show a different spelling of Beyonce’s name. The new title reads ‘Beyonse Sharma Jayegi’.

Earlier, film’s director Maqbool Khan has said that the song wasn’t racist. “First, without any hesitation or excuses we want to apologise 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 the literal manner. 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.”

Lyricist Kumaar added further, “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 beauty of global celebrity Beyoncé and don’t mean to hurt any of her fans.”

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The film is produced by Himanshu Kishan Mehra, Ali Abbas Zafar and Zee Studios. It’s said to be the first ever Bollywood film to have a simultaneous multi-format release on October 2. It would release on pay-per-view platform Zee Plex.

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