Singer Shreya Ghosal’s fans were in a bit of a tizzy this week when her duet Tum kya mile with Arijit Singh from Karan Johar’s Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani was released.
The fans felt Shreya’s contribution to the Pritam composition was being undermined, and the singer herself seemed to agree with this, as she retweeted one of the fan’s.
Even when Karan Johar announced the song on social media, he did not mention Ghosal in the “dream team” of Arijit Singh, Pritam and lyricist Amitabh Bhattacharya.
But hang on. Here is the truth behind Shreya and her fans feeling sidelined.Adding fuel to the fire is the fact that Shreya’s stanza from Tum Kya Mile was excluded from the song when released this week.
Says a source close to the song, “Shreya has an entire stanza to herself in Tum kya miley which is not in the version of the song released this week. To compensate for the absence, Alia Bhatt has lip-synced to Shreya’s portion of the song on Instagram just to let the singer’s fans know what’s in store.Not having enough of Shreya in the released version of the song also means not having enough of Alia .The smart actress realized this and put out the missing portion on social media.”
Favouring the male singer over the female is part of the Indian entertainment industry’s patriarchal mindset. Lata Mangeshkarji fought a long battle for pay parity and equality among male and female singers. She got her due. But other female playback singers remain sidelined to this day.
Arijit Singh gets paid a lot more than Shreya Ghosal when in fact she is as versatile as he is, if not more.Just as Ranveer Singh gets paid more than Alia Bhatt.