Exclusive: What I meant was not understood: Palash on being trolled over Atif Aslam post

Euphoria frontman Dr Palash Sen received flak after he posted a photo with Pakistani singer Atif Aslam on social media, on Wednesday. The Maeri singer lauded Aslam’s contribution towards Bollywood music and wrote, “According to me , the one singer – musician who has made the maximum impact on Bollywood ‘s music and most singers over the last 15 years , is this man. The awesome @atifaslam . I say this with a lot of humility. He has style , panache and that nasal twang that most singers in Bollywood tried to imitate. And his music is still copied by some leading music directors .. the Minor chord Kings!! This pic is 10 years old , when both of us collaborated for our concert in Abu Dhabi. And both Indians and Pakistanis sang along and danced together. Music Unites!! (sic).”

While some internet users supported his “music unites” stance and wrote, “Dada ur right. May be the borders will stop us to unite but good souls will still find way to connect (sic)” and “It takes a lot of honesty n guts to praise someone from the same field. That makes you different from the league.. Love you dada #euphoria (sic),” most of them criticised the musician for praising an artiste from across the border. A user wrote, “He should have made more impact in his own country. We have far more better singers than him (sic).” While another one posted, “This is bollywood for you in the name of art they always support Pakistan (sic).” In fact, Sen went ahead and responded to a few users. For the former comment, he wrote, “You are the only one who understood my post bro .. Thank you.” When a user posted, “Have you ever sang for any movie made in any other country (sic),” Sen responded, “Mujhe toh apne Bollywood ne boycott kar rakha hai bro!! (sic).”

When we contacted the 56-year-old, he said, “Usually, I don’t get trolled because I’ve always been below the radar. I am a small player in the larger scheme of things, especially because I don’t belong to Bollywood. I am a self-funded independent artiste, not backed by anyone, but the people of India. I don’t think people really understood the essence of my post, because it had layers. I was hinting at many more things than endorsing Atif. My question was very basic: Do we really lack talent that there was so much influence from one musician on Bollywood? I think Atif did make a big impact, hence Bollywood forgot our own talent and everyone started following his way of singing/ making music.”

He added, “We, as Indians, give so many opportunities to everybody, but I don’t think we get the same reciprocation from other countries. I don’t mind getting trolled if the people eventually do understand my purpose and start asking the bigger questions.”