Abhijeet Bhattacharya: Controversy’s favourite child

Abhijeet Bhattacharya is back in news and this time around again he is a upset with one of the Khans. After Shah Rukh Khan, this time its 'Bhai' who has to bare the brunt.

Abhijeet, who is known for his blunt statements and straight forward views on the industry have noticed that Salman Khan has a pattern of giving a chance to Pakistani singers to sing in his movies which are released recently.

The fact of giving Pakistani singers like Atif Aslam and Rahat Fateh Ali Khan chance to sing in Bollywood has not gone down well with the popular singer, reports state. According to the report, Abhijeet accused Salman of being partial to Pakistani singers, who have gradually become an essential part of Bollywood’s playback singing. Moreover, Abhijeet further questioned that are Indian singers not capable of singing in Bollywood.

A furious Abhijeet further added that Pakistani artists need to be restricted from working in the Indian film industry as to on one hand these Pakistani’s are killing Indian soldiers at border and on the other side Salman is giving opportunities to Pakistani talent only.

Hope Salman Khan is listening!

Bollywood singer Abhijeet Bhattacharya has, on numerous occasions, stirred up a hornet’s nest with his controversial tweets. The singer, who has often received flak for his insensitive tweets, found himself in the eye of the storm again when Twitter suspended his account on Tuesday after he posted a string of “offensive” tweets against women. On May 22, 2017, Abhijeet spewed venom at some Twitter users, including JNU student-activist Shehla Rashid, which prompted some of the netizens to lodge a complaint with Twitter. For the uninitiated, the singer had previously tweeted about the student, “There is rumour she took money for two hours and didn't satisfy the client... big racket.” In another tweet, he had insulted a female Twitter user when she called him out for his incendiary tweets, where he wrote, “You Ms Pak. Tell me your cage no? Will reach there... Will do the favourite pose.”

This is not the first time that Abhijeet’s tweets have evoked outrage across all quarters. Here’s a look at the various times the singer courted controversy:

Post the Uri attacks, filmmaker Karan Johar received flak for casting Pakistani actor Fawad Khan in his 2016 film ‘Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’ and faced a lot of backlash from various political parties who demanded that he chop off Fawad’s role completely from the love story. Joining the bandwagon was none other than Abhijeet, who posted a nasty tweet targeting the director. He tweeted, “Another #lovejihad.. Mehbooba #KaranJohar is in depression ..pak lover Fawad ditched bechari Mrs @karanjohar khan.”

In the wake of the Uri attacks, Abhijeet Bhattacharya lashed out at the Khans – Shah Rukh, Salman and Aamir – calling them “shameless” for breeding Pakistani actors. The singer went on a Twitter rant attacking the Khans and filmmakers Karan Johar and Mahesh Bhatt for “breeding and feeding” Pakistani actors. He tweeted, “B'wood is now full of frustrated 's and 6s prodcrs directrs, no ba**s, they want more Pathan boyfriends from Pak”. Continuing his rant, he added, “Ask this to Shame less Dalal like Johars, Bhatts and Super Star Khans .. And Offcourse our Visa Dalas in India and d foreign ministry.”

In 2015, when Pakistani ghazal singer Ghulam Ali was banned from performing in Mumbai, Abhijeet, in a series of shocking tweets, supported the ban saying that “nation and patriotism took priority over music” and branded the maestro as a “dengue artist”. “These shameless people have no self respect, no work except terrorism. So called Hindu political parties jst shout 4 mileage bt never tk action agnst these Dengu Artists from terrorist country.These qawwals don't come here on their merit but due to paki Dalals #prestitute and @MaheshNBhatt (sic),” Abhijeet tweeted.

The singer made a rather controversial statement in 2015, when the Sessions Court in Mumbai sentenced actor Salman Khan to five years in jail in the 2002 hit-and-run case. He came out in support of Salman by tweeting “Kutta rd pe soyega kutte ki maut marega, roads garib ke baap ki nahi hai I ws homles an year nvr slept on rd.” This tweet enraged several Twitter users who slammed him for his insensitive comments.

An FIR was filed against the singer when a woman accused him of molesting and abusing her at the Lokhandwala Durga Puja pandal in 2015. The incident allegedly took place at the pandal where the victim was present to watch singer Kailash Kher’s performance. Due to overcrowding, she had to leave her seat and this is when she reportedly felt Abhijeet touching her inappropriately. After she vociferously objected to his misconduct and asked to be taken to the officials to complaint, the singer threatened her of ‘consequences’. She then went on to lodge an FIR against Abhijeet under Section 354 A (Molestation) 506 & 34 of the IPC.