Article Excerpt & YouTube Discussion Comments About The Racist 2020 Bollywood Song "Beyoncé Sharma Jayegi" (later re-named "Duniya Sharma Jayegi")

 

Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post presents an excerpt of a Rolling Stone magazine article about the controversial 2020 Bollywood song " Beyoncé Sharma Jayegi" which was re-named "Duniya Sharma Jayegi" after vehement online protest.

This post also presents some comments about that song from the discussion threads of several YouTube videos or sound files.

The content of this post is presented for socio-cultural purposes.

Specifically, this post documents South Asians' and others' opinions about colorism* in Bollywood songs and movies.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.

-snip-

*Here is a definition of "colorism" from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/colorism
"prejudice or discrimination especially within a racial or ethnic group favoring people with lighter skin over those with darker skin"

Here are links to some other pancocojams posts about this song:
http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2020/08/beyonce-blue-ivy-saint-jhn-wizkid-brown_25.html 

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http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2019/07/brown-skin-girls-throughout-world.html "Brown Skin Girls Throughout The World Comment About Beyoncé's Song "Brown Skin Girl"

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https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2021/03/people-from-india-other-south-asians.html
"People From India & Other South Asian Nations Write About Colorism They Experience In Their Countries (comments from the YouTube discussion thread of the official video of Beyonce's song "Brown Skin Girl")"

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ARTICLE EXCERPT
From https://rollingstoneindia.com/khaali-peeli-beyonce-duniya-sharma-jayegi/ "Controversial Song ‘Beyoncé Sharma Jayegi’ Has Been Rechristened ‘Duniya Sharma Jayegi’

Despite over one million downvotes on YouTube and an apology from the director, the new song off Bollywood movie ‘Khaali Peeli’ still stands vilified"
by Rolling Stone India Sep 16, 2020
"It’s probably been a tumultuous week over at the camp that created the song “Beyoncé Sharma Jayegi,” for upcoming Bollywood movie Khaali Peeli starring Ishaan Khatter and Ananya Panday.

The Vishal-Shekhar composed self-proclaimed “item song” is sung by Nakash Aziz and Neeti Mohan, featuring lyrics by Kumaar and Raj Shekhar and released on September 7th with a promotional video on YouTube. Soon enough, it had amassed over a million downvotes on the video platform, plus widespread criticism about racist undertones and also dragging in singer-actor Beyoncé’s name.

By September 13th, in a bid to avoid more backlash and perhaps prevent the ire of the global pop star herself, the song title was amended to “Beyonse Sharma Jayegi.” ... As of earlier today, the song’s title has been changed and the video re-uploaded under the title “Duniya Sharma Jayegi.”

Khaali Peeli director Maqbool and lyricist Kumaar were fending off claims around the song’s derogatory nature. In an interview with Hindustan Times, Maqbool said, “First, without any hesitation or excuses we want to apologise to anyone offended. We assure you that the lyric in question was never intended racially. In fact, the term ‘goriya’ has been so often and traditionally used in Indian songs to address a girl, that it didn’t occur to any of us to interpret it in the literal manner."

[...]

Backtracking aside, the song may show up with a new title but the essential proof of their folly — the lyrics — are still up on all major lyric websites as well as in the metadata on streaming platforms"...
-snip-
Here are statistics for the official YouTube video for that Bollywood song (as of March 16, 2021 at 10:05 AM EDT (the publishing date and around the time of this pancocojams post)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LYL41-0DPE&ab_channel=ZeeMusicCompany:  #7,636,517 total views, #77K likes, and #261K dislikes.

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COMMENTS ABOUT THE BOLLYWOOD SONG WHOSE ORIGINAL TITLE INCLUDED BEYONCE'S NAME

These comments are from several YouTube discussion threads.

These comments are given in relative chronological order with the oldest comments presented first except for replies. Numbers are added for referencing purposes only.

I did not read all of the comments in these YouTube videos' and sound file's discussion threads.

Source #1
From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRFS0MYTC1I&ab_channel=Beyonc%C3%A9VEVO [This is the link to the official YouTube video of Beyonce's song "Brown Skin Girl"

2020

1. kandie
"dear Beyonce,

we are so sorry. indians don't claim them .

 

regards,

an indian."

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Reply
2. lord megatron the fifht lord megatron the fifth
"What? No majority of Indians do! Why is only this Ananias song wrong and not many other songs that normalises colourism?? Like kala chasma , and the song that goes like gori hai tu kitni gori hai??

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Reply
3. kandie
" @lord megatron the fifht lord megatron the fifth  I agree.."

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Reply
4. Gomez Sivan
"Spill"

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Reply
5. kandie
" @Gomez Sivan  oh.. long story short it's bollywood being racist and colourist.. and hating the queen Beyoncé in the process."

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Reply
6. Midnight rain
" @lord megatron the fifht lord megatron the fifth  exactly!!"

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Reply
7. whatishappening
" @lord megatron the fifht lord megatron the fifth  fully agree, but as this one was "new and popular" the people are only focusing on this one

its pathetic honestly"

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Reply
8. Shoumilee Ray
"@lord megatron the fifht lord megatron the fifth  nobody said "only ananya's song". BLM was the most recent protest and people's sensitivity towards the issue has increased as compared to 90s or 2000s. its stupid because in 2020, a modernass  year, we have to see this song which glorifies white skin only. many people are also pulling up older racist songs for criticism."

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Reply
9. Shoumilee Ray
"@Dankest Loli  all complexions are nice and deserve to be appreciated. the problem is when ONLY white skin is appreciated and darker complexions are treated as trash which is ignorant and straight up unethical. Sh&t* like this shouldn't be normalised in every country and that is why people are speaking up against such biased songs"
-snip-
*This word is fully spelled out in this comment.

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10. so fetch
"i am an Indian, and in India if you are a dark skinned women, you are looked down upon and considered ugly. I had always hated my complexion because i was told to by everyone. It was only in the western media that i saw women of my skin colour being called beautiful. Watching and listening to dark skinned girls being confident in their brown skin and embracing their melanin has made me love mine too.

Edit: As an Indian, I am ashamed of the recent controversial song, "Beyonce Sharma Jayegi" (Translation: Beyonce will be ashamed *after seeing a fair skinned girl*) because it just shows how racist and colourist INDIAn Media is. but i am so very proud of the indians speaking against it. I had to come back here, because the moment i heard about the title of that colorist song, i was reminded of this song. 

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11. TYSH GRAND
"As an Indian , I'd like to apologize.  Sorry"

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12. Iqbal Qosim
"Whats the translation of Beyonce Sharma Jayegi? I've watched that video and clicked dislike button lol"

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Reply
13. Billie Eyelash Extensions
"@Iqbal Qosim  The Song Contains Lyrics Like ''By Seeing You Dance Fair Skinned Girl , Beyoncé Would Be Ashamed'' "

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14. kanksha Subba
"Beyonce has one of the one strongest vocals, I adore her always but after the racist song #beyoncesharmajayegi I know why we prefer Artists from outside of India.💓 Didn't no one from the team of making that song realize that song is full sh&t* loaded??"
-snip-
*This word if fully spelled out in this comment.

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15. Liý Fé
"Shame on them both and bollywood!"

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16. Neelam Shukla
"bollywood is getting worst"

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Reply
17. Shoumilee Ray
"yeah we don't want to claim that song. its sooo trashyyyy"

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18. lemon
"Meanwhile Bollywood releasing a super racist song 'Beyonce sharma jayegi'"

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19. Finn Sobey
"@Kaivalya Vaidya  i need translation though"

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Reply
20. _ Kate
"@Finn Sobey  it about a guy praising a woman's body in a kinda demeaning way, which apparently is a new trend in bollywood and the line which keeps repeating is, "Tujhe dekhke goriya, Beyonce sharma jayegi" which translates to "Upon seeing you fair lady, Beyonce would be shy/put to shame". We don't know for sure if it's a direct attack on her but there was absolutely no need to put her name in those lyrics that too after "fair lady". Youth here is trying hard to end colour supremacy but these songs aren't helpful. 😓 You can check the number of dislikes on that video."

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21. Lucky A
"Wait what??? Did India really do that ???"

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Reply
22. Fiona Pereira
"@Lucky A  unfortunately yes"

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Reply
23. coldhands
"@Lucky A  yes it's really disgusting. the lyrics are translated to 'after seeing you white skinned girl beyonce would be put to shame'"

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Reply
24. _ Kate
"@Lucky A  check out the song on yt, it's super weird! Even if you put aside this one part, there's nothing likeable in entire song"

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25. Ridyansh Gupta
"Me...to cleanse my eyes and ears...they stopped working after I played beyonce Sharma jaayegi that too for only disliking it...💯"

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26. Priyanka Ghosh
"I genuinely apologize on behalf of Indian lyricists for embarrassing songs like that"

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27. Snigdha Jyothi
"Yar ab yha aake india ki beizzati math krna...let it be a secret as to not embarrass india in front of the world🤫🤫🤫"

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Source #2
From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyEcuy5LPUk&ab_channel=TheLyricsTranslation
Beyonce Sharma Jayegi Lyrics English Translation, Khaali Peeli

The Lyrics Translation, Sep 13, 2020

1. Ca Ab, 2020
"I read goriya doesn’t just mean girl it means light skinned girl. Is this true?"

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Reply
2. Z, 2021
“Goriya” means “white girl”, actually. Firstly, that’s obviously colourist and racist. But secondly, it’s also ironic because the girl is clearly tanned, she doesn’t have the same skin tone as white people. People without European heritage CANNOT have the same skin tone as White people. They come in different, shades, yes, but always different shades of TAN. It’s sad to see how our standards revolve so much around Eurocentric values which we cannot even have. Its sad to see such disgusting and deluded standards thats only purpose is to destroy humanity. It’s sad to see these standards exist overall.

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Source #3
From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LYL41-0DPE&ab_channel=ZeeMusicCompany
Duniya Sharma Jaayegi - Khaali Peeli | Ishaan, Ananya| Nakash & Neeti | Vishal & Shekhar| Kumaar,Raj
Zee Music Company, Sep 16, 2020

2020
1. Kirti .K
"They don't get happy by shaming only Beyonce, so now, they are insulting whole world.."
Wow! What a logic

**
Reply
2. FARSIN BM, 2021
"Omg u are right

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Reply, 2021
3. Shreeja Seth
"Beyonce is very nice singer...I donno why this song makers wanted to show her inferior.🌸" 

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4. Sourasikha Datta 
"They changed the lyrics and now included the whole world in it... 😑"

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Reply
5. Liton Roy
"STILL this rubbish song makes no sense..means what?? She is soo fair that whole World will be ashamed..abbe kyu be??"

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6. Lil Alien
"This video makes me understand why thanos wanted to wipe out half of the universe."

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Reply
7. s g
"😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂"

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Reply
8. Gaya 'kurmi'chaudhary
"Exactly 🤣🤣🤣🤣"

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Reply
9. Vidhi Patel
"True"

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Reply
10. Ishani Guhathakurta
"And now iron man regrets to save  it 😂😂😂😂 ."

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Reply
11. mew_ mew
"Lmao🤣🤣💯"

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Reply
12. TAPAS DAS
"u made my day bro god bless u😂😂😂🤣"

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Reply
13. vijay srinivasan
"Not the universe, he should have erased bollywood"

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Reply
14. Neeta Vyas
"🔥🔥🔥🔥"

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Reply
15. Sam D
"Epic!🤣🤣🤣"

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Reply
16. Pratheek G
"Guys this comment should get more likes than the video no matter what please!😂"

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Reply
17. Anisha Banerjee
"No worries covid is legit doing that😂😂"

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Reply
18. kuldi 7
"Thanos help us"

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Reply
19. Komalpreet Kaur
"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh😂😂😂😂😂😂"

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20. Priyanshu
"Rather than racism can we talk about how cringy this song actually is 😂"

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Reply
21. Ananya Chaudhari
"No cause racism is more important."

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Reply
22. Kriti Navida
"I’d say do both"

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23. Arafat Ali Jahin
"OMG! 🙄 most disappointing song and video ever🤮"

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24. Ishwarya Murali
"Changing a few words doesn't change the fact that this is a horrible song"

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Reply
25. - king-
"its good now stop hating, atleast they realised their mistake and changed the lyrics, thank you for hearing us"

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Reply
26. ChaoticDoll
"@- king-   LMAO can you not read? Ishwarya said that irrespective of them correcting their mistake, the song itself is still bad and corny as a whole..... which is true! Even if they hadn't wrote those racist lyrics, people would have still mocked this song for the rest of the song being terrible with stupid lyrics."

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Reply
27. Gaurav Negi
"@- king-  If changing just correcting mistake was enough for to forgive someone than this world would not even exist now as it currently is."

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2021

28. Pradip Kumar Goswami
"They did changed the Lyrics and the Title, but they can't change the music in this video section under description 😂 It still says Beyoncé Sharma Jayegi in song name. Kiye karam chupte nahi chupte 😂"

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29. billiana outsold
"Brown skin girl, ya skin just like pearls

Your back against the world

I never trade you for anybody else"
-snip-
These lyrics are from Beyoncé's "Brown Skin Girl" song.

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30. Christine Manjourides
"I thought this was a joke.. like a skit from SNL at first"

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31. Jose Olegs
"The audacity of dark-skinned men to make fun of dark-skinned women when they themselves are also victims of colorism....

The. Sheer. Audacity.
-snip-
These words were written in bold in this comment. 

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Reply
32. Nida Khatri
"EXACTLY

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33. Trisha Bansal
"Roses are red

Violets are blue

I am disliking

And so should you :D"

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