Twitterati enraged after Zee Music allegedly 'bans' singer Sonu Nigam over supporting AAP's Kumar Vishwas

After Gajendra Singh, a farmer from Rajasthan committed suicide, television news channels went into a frenzy. From prime time debates, phone-ins, allegations and counter allegations, Singh’s suicide at the Aam Aadmi Party rally gave TV viewers a glimpse of every thing from a weeping Ashutosh to conspiracy theories. At the time Zee News apparently aired footage which reportedly showed AAP leader Kumar Vishwas and in which a voice could be heard saying ’latak gaya’ (he has hung himself). The channel reportedly suggested that the callous comment had been made by Vishwas. [caption id=“attachment_2218788” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Sonu Nigam. AFP.[/caption] Soon after another video surfaced which analysed Zee’s footage to show that Kumar Vishwas was not even speaking when the words ’latak gaya’ were heard in the video. The second video alleged that Zee News had falsely tried to implicate the AAP leader. It also urges people to examine footage from other media companies that showed that Vishwas didn’t say anything. On 26 April, singer Sonu Nigam tweeted out the second video commenting that the truth should be revealed.

He also added that maybe Zee News had not tried to manipulate the video, and had perhaps just misunderstood the recording.

However, soon after, one of Nigam’s fans tweeted that Zee Music, which is part of the group that also owns Zee News, was planning to ban the singer. Yesterday, Nigam confirmed the news and said that Zee Music has indeed banned him and refused to produce or buy any music which has him associated with it.  

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A couple of tweets deriding the company’s decision to ban him followed, and soon enough, #IStandWithSonuNigam started trending on Twitter. Zee Music has not officially released a statement announcing a ban on Nigam, but if the singer’s declaration is anything to go by, the company has taken his criticism of its news channel very seriously. This despite Nigam having formerly anchored the hit television show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa that aired on general entertainment channel Zee TV, that belongs to the group, for years. Zee Music is a part of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. According to parent company’s website, “It is amongst the largest producers and aggregators of Hindi programming in the world, with an extensive library housing over 1.2 lac+ hours of television content. With rights to more than 3,500 movie titles from foremost studios and of iconic film stars, ZEEL houses the world’s largest Hindi film library.” Banning Nigam would mean that he is least likely to get featured in any channel that Zee owns, his songs may not air in Zee’s television channels. The ban, if true, could also discourage film producers to rope in Nigam to sing for their films if they intend Zee to buy the rights of marketing the music. In the recent times, Zee had bought the music distribution rights of blockbusters like Bang Bang and Humshakals. Most recently, they have acquired the rights to distribute the music for big budget Bollywood films like Bombay Velvet, Gabbar is Back and Piku, which star the biggest Bollywood stars of this day. While it is not clear what steps Zee Music will take against Nigam or if they seriously plan to place a long-standing ban on him, Twitter has come out in support of the popular Bollywood singer. Twitter users also pointed out that Bollywood stars and other music makers have remained silent on the issue, probably in fear of falling out with the music giant with deep pockets.

this is very shameful for a democratic country, banning on him was tottaly unacceptable, its time to raise our hands. #IStandWithSonuNigam

— Arpit Dhawan (@dhawan_arpit) April 29, 2015

Great job by sonu nigam.No Surprise that other superstar are silent on this topic.where are you #amitabhbacchan#SRK etc #IStandWithSonuNigam

— Jaswinder Singh (@RJ13JASSI) April 29, 2015

Well @ZeeMusicCompany, @sonunigam doesn't need you but you need him. He is a self made man. #IStandWithSonuNigam

— MrSharma 🇮🇳 (@TheVivekSharma) April 29, 2015

Banned for sharing the truth...waah Zee. Waah. #IStandWithSonuNigam

— Sanam Arora (@arora_sanam) April 29, 2015

Disclaimer: Firstpost is owned by Network 18 which also owns Colors that is in direct competition with general entertainment channels owned by Zee.