Well, I cannot say about Beyonce but the Khaali Peeli filmmakers definitely put all of us to shame with their recently released song, Beyonce Sharma Jayegi. Since its release earlier this week, the song has been heavily criticised by the netizens for its racist undertones and sexist packaging. The most problematic lyrics from the song go like, “Ho tujhe dekh ke goriya, Beyonce sharma jayegi.”
The desi Twitterati have also been apologising to the pop icon for getting her involved in this abomination of a song and that too for disparaging purposes. However, seems like the makers might get in some serious soup real soon. Well, as it turns out the makers didn’t seek Beyonce‘s permission to use her name in the song (of course, they didn’t). And this might bite them in the back given that the American singer copyrighted her name over a decade ago. She thus retains the rights to her name and can take legal action against anyone who uses it for commercial purposes.
Following the heavy backlash received by the song, this has sent the Khaali Peeli makers in a tizzy and they are now considering tweaking the song to dodge the bullet and legal trouble. A source from the production house, revealed in interaction with Mid-Day, “Beyoncé has not only trademarked her name, but also won a long legal battle to copyright daughter Blue Ivy’s name. In a pre-emptive move, the makers are now planning to rewrite the song to avoid legal repercussions. A final call will be taken this week. With the dance number being called out for racism, it will be an unwise move to take on an international star like Beyoncé, especially at a time when the Black Lives Matter movement has set the stage for equality.”
Anyway, we are guessing that Beyonce has already had enough from the Indian entertainment industry post the entire Pachtaoge fiasco. ICYMI, it was only recently that T-series was called out for plagiarising the visual imagery and Nora Fatehi’s look in their song from Beyonce’s 2014 hit single named Mine.
That said, it is a matter of great shame that it is only the legality of here that is alarming the filmmakers. Imagine an entire team of artists and intellectuals and not one person could detect the blatant racism embedded in the song that too at a time when the #BlackLivesMatter movement has literally taken over the world. Guess they had it coming!
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