No more Beyoncé in Bollywood song: racism claims result in cut of black US singer reference
- The offending lyrics, which translated as ‘After looking at you fair woman, Beyoncé would feel shy’, featured in a song from a film called Khaali Peeli
- India’s film industry is often accused of feeding the country’s bias against darker faces and tendency to glorify fair skin
A song from an upcoming Bollywood film has been rewritten after social media users criticised the original lyrics as racist for glorifying fair skin and making an inappropriate reference to black American pop star Beyoncé.
The offending lyrics, which translated as “After looking at you fair woman, Beyoncé would feel shy”, featured in a song from a film called Khaali Peeli, whose director Maqbool Khan swiftly apologised.
“The term ‘goriya’ [‘fair woman’ in Hindi] 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,” he added.
A new version of the song, which drops the controversial line, is now available on music streaming applications, a spokeswoman for the film said.