Punjabi Industry is a beehive of controversies! Be it the film industry or the music industry, each day brings a new controversy for the artists. There are only a handful of artists that you can name, who have not indulged in any controversy throughout their career.
2021 was specifically a very controversial year. We saw many new controversies arising in the year and also saw many older ones getting heated up once again.
List Of Most Heated Controversies Of Punjabi Industry 2021
1. Lahu Di Awaaz
This was without a doubt the most talked-about song of the year. Sung and written by Simiran Kaur Dhadli, the song aimed at bashing some selective social media influencers for wearing ‘short clothes’ and ‘selling their bodies in exchange of likes’. The song resulted in a huge social media discussion breaking out! A section of the public supported Simiran’s ideology while some bashed her for slut-shaming and glorifying patriarchy.
2. Prem Dhillon V/s Arjan Dhillon
This controversy came off as a surprise to everyone! It was totally unexpected and the audience were left stunned. In his song Prahune with Amrit Maan, one Prem Dhillon’s lines “Badal Ke Got’aan Aive Jatt Bande ” served as the ignition of this controversy.
The audience later found out that the comments were probably made to Arjan Dhillon. Slowly, the audience found various supportive old posts and sources that claimed that Arjan Dhillon’s real name was actually ‘Hardeep Khan’. Arjan did not react to it. He neither denied it nor claimed it. Thus, the controversy surrounding Arjan Dhillon’s real name became a mystery.
3. Parmish Verma V/s Sharry Maan
We know you saw this coming. Parmish Verma got married to the love of his life, Geet Grewal in 2021 in an intimate wedding. Sharry Maan, Parmish’s close friend, walked out disappointed from the marriage due to the way Parmish behaved with him and he also didn’t like his phone being taken away at the marriage.
You know what’s scarier than Sharry Maan? A drunk Sharry Maan. The artist went on to go live on Instagram to express his disappointment with Parmish and the legendary meme ‘Saleya Tu Drake Aan’ was born. Parmish later replied to Sharry’s comments and the friendship of both the artists reached an end.
4. Moosa Jatt Censor Ban
Sidhu Moosswala’s debut film as a lead actor, Moosa Jatt, was almost set for its worldwide release when the Censor Board suddenly banned it from releasing in India. Interestingly, Chal Mera Putt 3 was also set to release on the same date as Moosa Jatt before the latter was banned. This made Moosa Jatt makers ultimately blame the CMP3 team for using tricks for their benefit. However, Moosa Jatt was later released in India on 8 October, 2021.
5. Prem Dhillon V/s Sidhu Moosewala
This controversy did not live long enough to be actually called a controversy, but it shocked the whole Punjabi audience for a while! Prem Dhillon, whom Sidhu calls his brother, unfollowed Sidhu on Instagram. Prem was set to perform with Byg Byrd, Sidhu’s friend-turned-foe, in the coming days.
So, Sidhu fans were left disappointed and pointed out Prem for doing this. Sidhu Moosewala had also uploaded a snapchat story a few days ago, which the audience connected with this controversy. Later, Prem sang Sidhu’s ‘Old Skool’ verse and announced from the stage that the controversy was just made-up.
6. Sharab – Karan Aujla & Harjit Harman
Karan Aujla released his debut music album, BTFU, in 2021. While the album was trending all over the world and topping Billboard charts, a controversy around the song ‘Sharab’ broke out! Karan Aujla and Harjit Harman were blamed for ‘objectifying’ women and comparing them with guns and alcohol and a complaint was filed by Panditrao Dharennavar, a resident of Chandigarh. The Punjab State Women Commission summoned both the artists in the case. However, it was later settled and Karan and Harjit did not face any charges.
7. Sidhu Moosewala V/s Harvy Sandhu
This controversy was started when Sidhu Moosewala released the opening track, Bitch I’m Back, from his long awaited album Moosetape. Harvy Sandhu was left disappointed from it and criticized it through his social media account. This was followed by huge backlash from Sidhu’s fans.
Harvy then uploaded various pictures of him and Sidhu and claimed that Sidhu had come to meet him and asked him to click these pictures. The controversy turned more into Harvy V/s Sidhu’s fans rather than V/s Sidhu. Harvy Sandhu even filed cyber complaints against many pages.
8. Sidhu Moosewala V/s Amar Padda
The host of a Canadian radio channel named Tehlka, Amar Singh Padda, said on record that he would buy Sidhu Moosewala’s whole property at the moment. He even claimed to offer 5% more than the market price and buy Sidhu’s whole property in cash at the moment!
When the statement reached Sidhu, he took it to Instagram to reply to Amar Singh. The artist went on to slam the radio host. His message was loud and clear, “You Cannot Buy Something That’s Not For Sale”.
9. Karan Aujla V/s Amrit Maan
Karan Aujla went to the Punjabi talk show, Dil Diyaan Gallan, hosted by Sonam Bajwa. In a question round, the artist was asked about a trait he would like to borrow from various artists. When the name Amrit Maan popped up, Aujla replied, “Nothing”. This came off as a blow to the audience and they connected it to the links between Sidhu and Amrit.
Amrit Maan also posted a picture on his Instagram account and the caption of it was rumored to be a shot at Aujla. In the first intro of ‘BTFU’, the audience speculated that Karan Aujla even replied to Amrit Maan’s caption. The controversy did not get any much bigger than this.
10. Desires – Sandeep Bhullar
The official audio of the song Desires by AP Dhillon, Gurinder Gill and Shinda Kahlon was removed following a copyright claim by someone named Sandeep Bhullar. The audience blamed a Youtuber with the same name to be behind the action and called him an ‘abuser’ of Youtube’s copyright policy.
Sandeep had earlier taken down one of Zee Company’s music videos and the song ‘Bhuchaal’ by Thara Bhai Joginder, so the audience believed that he was behind the removal of Desires too. He later came live but when asked about the removal of Desires song, he said, “Why would I file a copyright against the Desire Car”.
11. 12 Bande – Varinder Brar V/s NseeB
The song 12 Bande was one of the most trending songs of the year. Varinder Brar used Shae OT’s Super Smash Bros Drill Remix and created a banger out of it. The description of the song also credited Shae OT and mentioned that the beat was sampled and inspired from his remix.
But somehow, rapper NseeB decided to call out Varinder for copying the music in the song through social media. The two were indulged in an online spat. 12 Bande was ultimately removed from Youtube due to a copyright claim by someone named Ramprakash Bindra. However, it was later recovered.
12. Qubool A
The superhit track from the movie Sufna was sung by Hashmat Sultana and written by Jaani. Though it was released more than a year ago, the Muslim community noticed something disturbing in the song. The sense in which the word ‘Rasul’ was used in the song, outraged Naib Shaahi Imam Maulana Muhammad Usman Rehmani of Ludhiana’s Jama Masjid. ‘Rasul’ is a word used for the Prophet Mohammad in the Muslim Community. Later, the whole Sufna team apologized publicly for their mistake.
13. Jija Sali
The song by Gurnam Bhullar and Deepak Dhillon brought a new controversy for the artists. Gurnam and the lyricist of the song, Gill Raunta, were slammed for making disrespectful remarks about the Driver community all around the world. Later, another perspective also came out which stated that Gurnam or Gill did not pass any comments on the Driver Community. The song focussed on the girl making comments on the drivers while Gurnam arguing with her and fighting stereotypes around the driver community.
14. R Nait V/s Tarsem & Billa
Once Best Friends, R Nait and Tarsem got involved in a heated up controversy when Tarsem released the track ‘Pittal’. Based on a true story, the plot of the song showed how a group of friends help their friend in his journey to success, who then ignores them.
It was speculated that Tarsem was targeting R Nait in his song and the guy who ignored his friends after becoming successful, was based on R Nait. After a long silence, R Nait finally broke out! He uploaded a couple of Snapchat stories in reply to the song and the controversy became a lot bigger than anybody had expected.
15. Sukh Sanghera V/s Jerry
3 music videos were officially released on Youtube in their ‘rough cut’ form and that’s how popular Punjabi singer Jerry was left disappointed. He came live on Instagram and asked the director of the videos, Sukh Sanghera about it. He was left hurt by the incident and revealed how the videos were released without any information to him, in their rough cut forms.
Interestingly( the description of the videos on Youtube stated that the audio version of the songs were leaked online and that was the reason that the songs were released in their rough forms. Jerry also revealed that he was blocked by Sukh from all platforms. Sukh later reacted to the controversy and completely denied the allegations.
16. Shree Brar’s Arrest
The lyricist of Kisaan Anthem and Kisaan Anthem 2, Shree Brar was arrested by Punjab Police for promoting gun culture and violence in his song ‘Jaan’. However, the public was of the opinion that Shree Brar was arrested because he supported the farmers’ protest with the Kisaan Anthem. Shree Brar later got bail and a few months later, went on to release Kisaan Anthem 2.
17. Sony Maan V/s Lakha Sidhana
Sun Tatta Tatta song, sung by Sony Maan and written by Happy Bandale Wala brought a new controversy for Sony Maan. A part of the song used gangster-turned-social activist Lakha Sidhana’s photos. Sony Maan claimed that she was asked to remove the photos and when she refused to, Lakha Sidhana’s supporters fired bullets outside her house which posed a threat of life to her family.
18. Gurdas Maan Hurting Sentiments
Veteran Punjabi singer Gurdas Maan has been surrounded by various controversies in recent times. 2021 was also a hard year for the artist as he landed himself in legal trouble for calling Sai Laddi Shah Ji, the former head of Dera Baba Murad Shah Ji, a descendant of the Third Great Sikh Guru, Shri Guru Amar Das Ji. This outraged the Sikh Community, who lodged a legal case against him.
These were by far the most heated up, but not the only, controversies related to the Punjabi Industry in 2021. It was a year of controversies. While we brought you the most heated controversies of 2021, there are still a lot of controversies to name. The year might have started with COVID-19 second wave outbreak but it did not stop the entertainment for the audience!
