Nora Fatehi Breaks Silence On ‘Sarke Chunar’ Row: “I Had No Idea About The Hindi Version, No Permission Was Taken”
Nora Fatehi has come out swinging over the Sarke Chunar Teri Sarke mess and honestly, her frustration makes sense. In a video posted on Wednesday, March 18, the actress clarified that she shot the original song three years ago in Kannada, had no clue a Hindi dubbed version existed, and was never asked for her approval before it went live.
“I shot this song three years ago in Kannada. I said yes to it because it was a part of a big film, with a big icon, Sanjay Dutt who would say no to work with him? I also thought it is a remake of an iconic song. When I’m on set shooting for this song, I’m relying on the filmmakers to translate the song, and that is what I go by. When they’re translating the song to me, nothing seemed inappropriate or vulgar,” she said.
The Hindi version with lyrics she called “very inappropriate” was another story entirely. “Whatever they’ve done right now, which is creating a Hindi version and dubbing the voice in Hindi and having those lyrics I had no idea about that. They didn’t take any approvals, they didn’t take any permission from me.”
She also took issue with an AI-generated image of her and Sanjay Dutt that was used around the same time. “I’m already against AI, so I was already feeling really irritated at the event. I had to be respectful regardless. I’m in the presence of media, filmmakers, people who give me opportunities, so I have to carry myself in a certain way.”
Nora said she flagged her concerns to the director directly after seeing the Hindi version. “I said, my image and reputation is on the line. As artists, especially artists like me, we don’t really have this backing. We’re not nepo kids. We don’t come with a certain power behind us. It’s just us individuals and the audience which is behind us. We have little power, little control.”
What came next is worth noting. She didn’t just accept that the song stayed up she kept pushing. “Thankfully, I’ve been lucky in Bollywood to work with a lot of people who have respected my opinion, who have respected my creative call on certain things, and who listen to me. I’ve been very lucky. However, there are certain places, certain industries, they don’t listen. They don’t care about my opinion. Because of this backlash, it pushed them to remove these songs and I’m grateful for that.”
She also had a pointed message for the media stop making it only about the artist. “You start using their name and images when such controversies arise. You start bombarding their name and images to the audience because then only will they have some fear and they will feel some sort of accountability and responsibility when they create content. If you’re only going to bombard the audience with just the artist’s name and image, it’s counterproductive because we don’t have control of such scenarios.”
Her post caption put it plainly: “I would hate for anyone to think I endorse this.. thank you for the backlash because of this pressure the filmmakers have luckily taken it down. I’d also request everyone to stop sharing the song because you’re just giving it a platform unnecessarily.”
She closed with a direct rebuttal to those using the episode to take personal shots at her. “I see some of you guys trying to use this as an opportunity to attack my character. It’s unfortunate. Me and my team will be more careful in the future in such situations. However I do want to reiterate I had no idea about this Hindi song, I did not perform to it, and there was no permission taken to use it with my image.”
The makers of KD: The Devil pulled the song from YouTube after sustained social media backlash over its lyrics and choreography. The video was up until March 16; by the morning of March 17, it was gone. Most of the criticism centred on the opening verse a double entendre that appears to reference an intimate act before later lines reveal it’s about a drink and a bottle. That clarification did little to cool things down, with many viewers continuing to call the wording out as “inappropriate.”
KD: The Devil is a Kannada period action drama directed by Prem and headlined by Dhruva Sarja. Set in 1970s Bengaluru and said to be based on real events, the film follows Kaali a small-time criminal who gets pulled into the city’s underworld. The cast also includes Shilpa Shetty, V Ravichandran, and Ramesh Aravind.