MNS forces removal of music videos of Pakistani artistes
Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Music companies have begun to pull out videos of Pakistani artistes on their online channels after Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena asked them to do so in the wake of the suicide bombing of the CRPF convoy at Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir.
T-Series was the first to state that it was pulling out the music videos and songs by Pakistani artistes on their YouTube channels. The company said it was removing the videos of Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and Atif Aslam from online media. It added that even promotion of the songs on radio and television has been stopped till further notice.
On Saturday, Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena asked companies like T-Series, Tips, Venus and Sony Music not to promote Pakistani artistes.
Amey Khopkar, who heads the MNS’ film wing Chitrapat Sena, said all the music companies were in the process of complying with the advise by Thackeray.
Following a threat by MNS, Pakistani artistes stopped featuring in Bollywood productions in the wake of the Uri terror attacks in 2016.
