Too slow, tardy, say complainants.
By Dileep Thekkethil
The India-Pakistan World T20 cricket match played at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens, which the men in blue won comprehensively, continues to be marred in controversy.
There were issues even before the start of the play over the change of the venue, but now, it seems like the celebrities who came to watch and support the game are also facing the heat along with Shahid Afridi who might lose his captaincy over the poor performance and Pakistan’s comprehensive loss.
Amitabh Bachchan was one of the invited guests for the animated India Pakistan T20 match and he was the first to court trouble.
A few websites reported that the Big-B took Rs. 4 crores to sing the national anthem during the pre-match session triggering a social media outcry against the Sholay actor.
As the social media trolls started to pick pace, the former Indian captain and the current President of the Bengal cricket association, Saurav Ganguly came in to rescue Bachchan saying that Bollywood actor neither asked for any payment nor did he accept any from the board. In fact, Bachchan paid Rs. 30 lakh from his own pocket.
As the septuagenarian actor thought his ordeal was over, a complaint was filed against him at Ashok Nagar police station, New Delhi on Monday. The complainant has accused Bachchan for singing the national anthem ‘slowly’ during the World T20.
In his complaint, Ulhas PR accuses the actor of having sung the national anthem for 1 minute and 22 seconds when 52 seconds is the approximate time set to finish the anthem, according to the rules of the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Interestingly, Bachchan’s co-singer from Pakistan, Shafqat Amanat Ali, is also in trouble as he failed to keep up with the lyrics of his anthem, which caused displeasure among many fans across his country.
“Earlier singers used to make Pakistan proud, people like Shafqat Amanat Ali have brought utter disgrace to us,†tweeted a Pak fan Aisha Baloch.
In the meanwhile, the Pakistani singer has come with a statement blaming the poor audio system in the Eden Gardens for his bad performance. He wrote “People don’t know there was a ‘sound issue’ there.â€
He added, “Was getting delayed sound on headphones, might seem like small problem, but is big issue from audio point of view.â€
He wrote on his official Facebook page “Technical issues are not new to our line of work. As professionals, we always anticipate these things, which is why I didn’t stop singing. No one could have been prepared for the technical glitches that awaited us after the rain that day. There’s literally no one to blame, but the weather. And then came the real issue…The audio mismatch! I could hear one track in one of my ear monitors & a delayed feed of the same on the speaker in front. My own voice was coming back to me through that speaker after I had sung it, and in all this, I did my best to ensure that I did not interrupt the anthem, out of sheer respect. Therefore, what sounds like an error to you in one syllable, many times, is not a mistake but the sound getting muffled at the stadium.
Having said that, I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to Saurav Ganguly & the ‪#‎ICC for organizing such a fabulous event & managing it so beautifully despite the weather & all other odds. Truly enjoyed being a part of it.
I am also very, very grateful for the opportunity to sing alongside the legendary Mr. Amitabh Bachchan.
Also a huge Thank You to the wonderful & highly supportive audience at the Eden Gardens stadium, who kept all our spirits up and finally, all of you, my wonderful friends on social media, who took all this pain to support me .
I was overwhelmed to read your ‪#‎RespectShafqat tweets & cannot thank you enough…â€