London, July 14 (IANS) Oscar winning composer A.R. Rahman got slammed over social media after some of his fans reportedly walked out of his concert at Wembley Stadium because many of the songs he sang were in Tamil.
Rahman performed the concert “Netru, Indru, Naalai”(Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow) at the London event on July 8.
However, according to reports, fans started leaving the concert after Rahman started singing Tamil songs.
“A.R. Rahman concert: Never seen so much disappointment and mass walkouts. Approximately one per cent of songs in Hindi,” one fan posted on Twitter.
Another tweeted: “A.R. Rahman very disappointed with the concert tonight (July 8) in Wembley. Waited for a very long time to be disappointed? Not expected from a legend.”
“Lovely to see A.R. Rahman, but all the songs are in Tamil! What about your Hindi/Bollywood fans?”
After the reported walkout, a statement was later issued on a Facebook page named “A R Rahman Live – UK” on July 10 saying: “Hi London. Thanks for the tremendous support and response. However, we have been getting few complaints on language bias which is rather unfortunate as this was an Indian show and music doesn’t have any barriers.”
The Facebook statement, which could not be verified immediately, also sought to put the controversy in perspective. “We have posted the track list performed at The SSE Arena, Wembley to prove that there were 16 full tracks in Hindi, 12 full Tamil tracks and one medley with a mix of Tamil and Hindi.”
There were many fans who supported him. “We must demand refund of tax paid to Indian Government as we don’t get service in my Langauge #stopHindiImposition #ARRahman,” a fan tweeted.
“This is how v feel when Hindi is imposed or Hindi songs r in list in Yuva Dasara Mysuru or Hindi is heard in flight announcement” said another tweet.
Rahman is currently in New York for the 18th edition of the IIFA Weekend and Awards and is yet to directly address the incident.