Song from Suneel Darshan’s film back on YouTube

Anew song from an upcoming film doing well on social media is a regular feature these days. However, filmmaker Suneel Darshan was in for a shock when he realised that Hue Bechain, a song from his film, Ek Haseena Thi Ek Deewana Tha, had disappeared from YouTube. The song, that had garnered about half a million hits in four days, had been pulled off by the online platform because it said the song had “inappropriate content”. “We got a mail from YouTube saying that the song had been deleted because the song offended sensibilities. I was shocked since the characters in the song were fully clad, and there was nothing disturbing in the lyrics either,” says Darshan, who then approached the YouTube rep to find out what was inappropriate in the content. “We were then told that about 40 people had objected online to the content and the channel had pulled it off. However, YouTube also assured me that they would look into the matter.”

Meanwhile Darshan approached CBFC chief Pahlaj Nihalini, since the song had been passed by the censor board. “Pahlaj ji was enraged and advised me to approach the cyber crime cell since he felt the trolling of the song was done by someone with the intent of getting it off from YouTube at a time when it was doing well. He thought we needed to find out who had objected to the song.”

With a complaint registered with the cyber crime department, YouTube reinstated the song at 2am the next day. “We lost out on traffic just when the song had reached a peak, and it is clearly done by someone who was unhappy about how well the song was doing. It is a kind of sabotage,” says Darshan, who is now keen for the crime cell to reveal who the trolls where. The song's music is done by Nadeem, who was a part of the popular ’90s duo Nadeem-Shravan.

“One of the reasons why this happened is possibly because I have not done music with any of the big music companies,” shares the filmmaker.

Interestingly, when the song was pulled off for a day, several online users began to write on Facebook asking for the song to be reinstated. “I took this issue up so seriously, because I feel it is an industry issue that we need to address. Luckily for me, I have access to people and could get my content back. But, imagine if it were a new filmmaker, it would be tough for him or her to fight back,” says Darshan.

The song has since been garnering hits again, and Darshan says he's happy that the hard work of the team to get it back online has worked.

We were told that about 40 people had objected online to the content and the channel had pulled it off SUNEEL DARSHAN, FILMMAKER