Bollywood has had quite a significant influence on my life. My family’s love for Bollywood songs, from Manna Dey’s iconic Tu Pyar Ka Sagar Hai to Lata Mangeshkar’s Ek Pyar Ka Nagma Hai, has led me to grow up listening to them. But, over the course of time, social outlooks have changed and Bollywood music didn’t, leading to accusations that it falls amongst the biggest purveyors of racism for glorifying fairness in its hyperbolic love stories and songs.
This can be seen in one of the industry’s latest songs - Beyonce Sharma Jayegi' - from the movie Khaali Peeli, starring Ishaan Khatter and Ananya Pandey. Released just a few days ago, the song received huge criticism on social media and was said to have ‘tone-deaf lyrics.' It showed Ishaan’s character comparing Ananya’s with the world-famous American singer Beyonce by saying “Ho tujhe dekh ke goriya//Beyonce sharma jayegi!” Translated to English, the lyric is “O fair woman, by seeing you, even Beyonce would be embarrassed!” By including ‘goriya’ before an iconic black woman’s name and implying that it would be a point of embarrassment, the lyrics accentuate racism and colorism.
This was not well received by its audiences. Minutes after the release, the song started being slammed for the lyrics, which many found to be ‘racist’ and ‘cringe-worthy’. After being asked about the situation, the director said, “the term ‘goriya’ has so often been used in Indian songs to address a girl that it did not occur to any of us to interpret it in the literal manner.” Doesn’t make any sense, does it? Why use Beyonce’s name in the song with the word ‘goriya’ before it knowing that she belongs to an African American background? For that matter, why use the word ‘goriya’ as a way of addressing girls in the first place? Are we still promoting fairness as a beauty standard?
Director Maqbool Khan has now addressed the outrage caused by the song, offering an apology for causing offence and assuring that the lyrics were never intended racially. The name of the song has now been changed to Duniya Sharma Jayegi, and Beyonce’s name has been removed. Paired with the rise of movements like Black Lives Matter that fight to remove discrimination from the world, the release of this song was sickening - although it was horrifying on its own too. Unfortunately, it’s not just one song, but hundreds of songs like these that make the job of removing racism from the world even more difficult than it already is.
Written By: Paridhi Pasrija
Edited By: Akrit Agarwal & Vedika Mandapati
Designed by: Saisha Singh and Aradhya Poddar
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