Khaali Peeli makers alter the spelling of Beyonce in the song Beyonce Sharma Jayegi after backlash

13 Sep 2020

A week ago, the makers of Ishaan Khatter and Ananya Panday starrer Khaali Peeli released the first song from the film titled Beyonce Sharma Jaayegi. However, the song received backlash for its racist undertones as it had the lyrics Tujhe dekh ke goriya, Beyonc sharma jayegi! Now, the makers have altered the spelling of the word Beyonce to Beyonse after the backlash. According to a daily, Beyonc trademarked her name decades ago. She even fought a legal battle to trademark her daughter Blue Ivys name too. Since the makers had not sought permission to use the name for commercial purposes, they had reportedly planned on re-writing the song in order to avoid legal repercussions. However, for now they seemed to have changed the spelling of Beyonce. A few days back, director Maqbool Khan spoke about the actual reference of the word 'Goriya' in the song. "First, without any hesitation or excuses we want to apologize 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 a 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," he said. Further lyricist Kumaar added, 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 the beauty of global celebrity Beyonc and dont mean to hurt any of her fans'Beyonse Sharma Jayegi is composed by Musical duo Vishal Shekhar and the song incorporates 12 different kinds of dance forms including locking, Popping, Hip Hop, Ballet, House, Kalari, Kathak, Ring Dance, Fire Juggling, B-boying, Kalaripayattu, and many more.Meanwhile, Khaali Peeli will be released on Zee Plex on October 2, 2020.