In a debate moderated by TIMES NOW's Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami, panelists -- Mayank Shekar, Film Critic; Bhavna Somaya, Film Critic; Amitabh Thakur, IPS Officer & Complainant; Prasoon Joshi, Lyricist -- discuss the issue of offensive lyrics in some of rapper Honey Singh's songs, and whether crudity, sexism and filthy references to women is being passed off as creativity in the name of popular culture.
Rapper Honey Singh, who was forced to cancel his scheduled New Year's Eve show following protests in the backdrop of gangrape incident, on Mon (Jan 1) sought to wash his hands off the controversy triggered by offensive lyrics insome of his songs. Singh, 28, who has sung for several Bollywood movies,said he had not authored the lyrics that are being attributedto him. The lyrics have been termed offensive towards women by activists, who have started an online campaign against Singh. An FIR has also been lodged against the rapper in Lucknow. The FIR was lodged by IPS officer Amitabh Thakur. In his complaint, Thakur alleged that the songs were "extremely vulgar, lewd and indecent and act as an offensive catalyst for crime against women". 28-year-old Honey Singh raps mostly in a mix of English and Punjabi and has lent his voice in recent Bollywood films like 'Khiladi 786', 'Cocktail' and 'Luv Shuv Te Chicken Khurana'. Outrage against the rapper and his derogatory songs have been pouring on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter for the past few days.
