Saregama says ‘will change’ lyrics, name of ‘Madhuban’ song following outrage over Sunny Leone's video

Bhopal, December 26

Music label Saregama on Sunday said the company will “change” the lyrics and the name of the song “Madhuban” after Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra alleged that the video of the track has hurt the religious sentiments of Hindus.

The minister on Sunday had warned actor Sunny Leone, who stars in the video, and singers Shaarib and Toshi to apologise and withdraw their song ‘Madhuban mein Radhika, jaise jungle me nache mor’ within three days or else face action.

“In light of the recent feedback & respecting the sentiments of our fellow countrymen, we will be changing the lyrics & the name of the song Madhuban.

“The new song will replace the old one across all platforms over the next 3 days,” Saregama, which had released the aforementioned song on its YouTube channel on December 22, said in a brief statement.

Mishra, who is also the Madhya Pradesh government spokesperson, had said Hindus worship Maa Radha and the song had hurt the sentiments of the people.

“Some vidharmis are constantly hurting Hindu sentiments. The video ‘Madhuban me Radhika nache’ is one such condemnable attempt. I am warning Sunny Leone ji, Shaarib and Toshi ji to understand. If they don’t remove the song after apologising in three days, then we will take action against them,” Mishra told reporters when asked about the song.

The song, which was released last week, is composed and sung by Shaarib and Toshi featuring Kanika Kapoor and Arindam Chakraborty.

On December 22, Leone had tweeted, “New Song Alert, Party Vibes only with #Madhuban!”, while sharing the video of the song ‘Madhuban me Radhika, jaise jungle me nache mor’.

The initial few words of this song match with the iconic ‘Madhuban mein Radhika naache re’ song from the 1960 film “Kohinoor”. That song was sung by late singing legend Mohammed Rafi and featured late actor Dilip Kumar.

On Saturday, priests in Uttar Pradesh’s Mathura had demanded a ban on this latest video album of Leone, accusing the Bollywood actor of hurting their religious sentiments by performing an “obscene” dance on the song ‘Madhuban mein Radhika nache’.

In October this year, Mishra had issued a 24-hour ultimatum to fashion and jewellery designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee to withdraw an advertisement with “objectionable and obscene” portrayal of mangalsutra or else face statutory action. The designer had later withdrawn this advertisement.

Similarly, a few days before that, Dabur India Private Limited had withdrawn its Fem cream bleach advertisement, which showed same-sex couple celebrating ‘Karva Chauth’ and watching each other through a sieve, after the MP home minister termed the ad as objectionable and warned of taking legal steps against the company. —PTI

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