Not just Lata Mangeshkar, four other times when Indian biggies weren’t acknowledged on foreign soil
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New Delhi: Indian users of the Internet lost their mind when a leading US daily, referred to the legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar as ‘so-called playback singer’. The report was mentioning about how Mumbai police has got in touch with YouTube and Google, to block the video by comedian Tanmay Bhat which mocked Lata Mangeshkar and Sachin Tendulkar. The strong reaction from the people is justified considering Lata Mangeshkar’s enormous contribution to Indian cinema and the fact that she is an awardee of Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honour. However, this is not the first time that a foreign media body or organisation has got in the wrong side of Indians. In the past, there have been incidents when legends of India were not recognised by some organisations and got slammed by the Indians on social media. Here are five incidents about it
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Lata Mangeshkar- The latest one on the list is what many are calling New York Times’ careless piece. Many netizens have slammed the leading daily for not giving due respect to Lataji and called her ‘so-called playback singer.’ Twitter went abuzz with tweets from people who asked NYT to check their facts before writing anything about the singer who has lent her voice to many songs. However, Ellen Barry, the South Asia bureau chief, clarified the “so-called” reference in the story was not a “commentary” but used for “non-Indian readers” unfamiliar with the term “playback singer”. This, too did not lessen the anger of Twitterratti.
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Deepika Padukone- A few months ago, Daily Mail wrote a gossipy piece about actress Deepika Padukone’s dinner outing with tennis star Novak Djokovic. When the two left a high end pub, the leading daily described it as “Djokovic’s spotted on dinner date with 'a female companion' and 'a leggy brunette'”, outraging Indians. Many felt that Deepika has made a name for herself in the West and she did not deserve to be written off like this. Many also pointed out that Deepika’s connection with Novak, ran deeper than the dinner outing, something which the daily should have been aware of. After receiving ire from Indians, Daily Mail corrected their story.
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Sachin Tendulkar- Worshipped as the God of cricket, Sachin Tendulkar ran into trouble with British Airways last year in November. The airlines lost Sachin’s luggage and when he complained about it they asked for his baggage reference, full name and address. Sachin tweeted this incident and people on the microblogging website went berserk. Fans of the legend, condemned British Airways for not knowing the legacy of the Master Blaster and troubling him.
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Sachin Tendulkar, again- Through this particular incident tennis star Maria Sharapova incurred the wrath of Indian cricket fans. During a post-match press conference in July 2014, when Maria was asked if she knew that cricket legend Sachin had come to watch her play, she replied in the negative. This did not go well with a section of Sachin’s fans and they created quite the hue and cry around it. Though, Sachin later said that her comments were not offensive.
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Shah Rukh Khan- The superstar of Bollywood, Shah Rukh Khan whose stardom knows no boundaries, a few years ago was detained at the US airport. The star was on his way to Yale University, for a function and had arrived on a private plane. He was detained for 90 minutes for reasons unknown, something which got Indians angry. Authorities too went on to say that this security process of US airport authorities was not in good taste. Khan, was also very upset from the entire incident but years later he joked that when he feels he is on the top of the world, he flies to U.S. and the authorities remind him his place.