‘Whoa, what was that?!’ Those who stumbled on to Arijit Singh’s Facebook page on Tuesday night were in for a shock — staring at them was a public apology, heartfelt and emotional — from the man who shot into the spotlight with his romance anthem Tum hi ho to Bollywood’s biggest superstar.
Arijit was begging Salman Khan not to drop a song sung by the Murshidabad man from the OST of his upcoming Id biggie Sultan, produced by Yash Raj Films and co-starring Anushka Sharma.
t2 traces the story and the backstory of the Salman-Arijit fallout.
WHAT: A public apology on Facebook — rare in Bollywood — from Arijit Singh, Bolly’s go-to man for every hit number, romantic to soulful to celebratory, to Salman Khan for a “mistake” in the past in which the superstar felt “insulted”. In the post peppered with the words “apology” and “apologised” numerous times, Arijit, from small-town Bengal who catapulted into Bolly’s big league through a singing reality show, says that he made an effort to reach out to Salman several times — “I have been trying to text you call you.... I tried to explain to you many times but you never got it....”. He further says: “This is the last way I thought I would speak to you.” His ardent request: “I want to retire with at least one song of you keeping (sic) in my library.”
WHY: It still isn’t clear what prompted the 29-year-old singer’s social media outburst, but industry whispers and Arijit’s post point to a spat on stage with Salman at the Star Guild Awards in 2014, hosted by Bollywood’s Bhaijaan in which Arijit won an award for the Aashiqui 2 hit Tum hi ho. Arijit stumbled on stage looking tired and dishevelled, prompting Salman to crack a joke or two at his expense. The singer, known for his volatile temperament, volunteered to “teach” Salman how to sing. Salman played along sportingly, but Arijit’s attitude reportedly left him miffed.
On Wednesday, some Arijit fans on Twitter insisted that it wasn’t Arijit but Tum hi ho music man Mithoon who had offended Salman at the same award night, but Arijit’s post made no mention of the said episode.
Since then, Salman has ensured that Arijit — who has sung for the likes of Shah Rukh Khan to Akshay Kumar, Hrithik Roshan to Ranbir Kapoor — hasn’t been allowed close to a Salman song (“You made sure I don’t sing for you even though so many of us requested”, says Arijit in his post). The final straw apparently came on Tuesday when Arijit was told that a song he had sung for Sultan — that unveiled its trailer on Tuesday — could be dropped from the final film at Salman’s behest. And in an industry where superstars call the shots — from casting to locations to budgets — this could well turn out to be true. That Arijit himself wrote: “I don’t know why I am doing this. I know the consequences”, highlights the clout that Salman the superstar exercises in Bollywood.
WHAT NEXT: Arijit deleted the post later on Tuesday, but by then it had taken social media by storm. He did replace it with a post that said it all: “This whole thing will backfire on me.”
Remember a certain Vivek Oberoi?
