So you guys must have heard about the Tanmay Bhat controversy (if you haven’t what do you really use internet for?). Recently, he posted a “civil-war” between Cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and Singer Lata Mangeshkar, and got roasted by their admirers and politicians.
In his debate with self, he suggested Virat Kohli is better than Sachin Tendulkar and wondered why Lata Mangeshkar is still alive, which lead to people asking for an FIR agaisnt the comedian.
And now the real news, while reporting this news New York Times called Lata Mangeshkar a “so-called singer” from India. (Has any politician raised their voice against that yet?)
New York Times wrote in their article and we quote, “In the expletive -laced video, which was created on Snapchat, Mr. Bhat uses that app’s face swap feature to impersonate Sachine Tendulkar, a hugely popular cricketer who retire in 2013, and Lata Mangeshkar, a so-called playback singer for Bollywood films whose career dates to in 1940s. Playback singers record vocals for song-and-dance numbers, to which actors and actresses lip sync.”
That’s a potential spark right there, NY Times.
Twitter world backlashed, here are few tweets on this Lata Mangeshkar issue,
@nytimes how dare you call @mangeshkarlata a so called playback singer??? I feel pity for your knowledge! Apologies required! Get updated!
— Shatadru Seal (@ShatadruSeal) June 1, 2016
Thought "#LataMangeshkar is a so-called singer" was a spoof. It's not!
What next @nytimes? Sinatra & Whitney Huston are "so-called singers"?— Smita Barooah (@smitabarooah) May 31, 2016
Just because you don't know what a playback singer is, @nytimes, doesn't make it "so-called." Lata is an icon. https://t.co/kTBwJSrH8X
— Suleikha Snyder (@suleikhasnyder) May 31, 2016
So New York Times had to come and explain themselves, I doubt if it did much damage control.
Ellen Barry, the South Asia bureau chief of The New York Times explained the “so-called” reference in the story was not “commentary” and was meant for “non-Indian readers” who are unfamiliar with the term “playback singer”.
Suhasini Raj, the co-writer quoted the dictionary, so-called: used to introduce a new word or phrase that is not yet known by many people.
New York-based Indian writer Aseem Chhabra tweeted: “Amazing some folks are upset @nytimes. Idea of ‘playback singer’ is unique to India. Hence the ‘so-called’ expression about @mangeshkarlata!”
Okay, that was…well, nothing more than controversy over a controversy.
