Dua Lipa’s SRK tribute fact-checked by singer Abhijeet Bhattacharya, but the internet has a different name in mind

Dua Lipa’s fascination with India is not really newfound. The singer had spent the last leg of 2023, touring the lanes and by-lanes of Rajasthan with her family, soaking in the colour and spirit. Incidentally, that too wasn’t her first time in India. So of course she had to pull out all stops for her Zomato Feeding India Concert. You have to be living under a rock to not know what she pulled off on Saturday — we’re of course talking about her casually throwing in the reel-viral Levitating X Woh Ladki Jo mashup in the middle of a set, paired with fireworks and all. ‘And the crowd goes wild’ would be an understatement, both for the in-stadium fans who experienced it real time and the internet at large. Within minutes, videos of the moment flooded social media platforms, most of them tagging the moment as ‘Dua Lipa X SRK’, given that Woh Ladki Jo from Baadshah (1999) featured him. The implication of course was, that SRK’s aura and stardom is what compelled this moment into existence and that is for obvious reasons true.

This also but, doesn’t take away from the fact that the song is what it is, because of the vocals, courtesy of Abhijeet Bhattacharya, and the contemporary beat which is still very relevant today, courtesy of Anu Malik. The latter is yet to acknowledge the internet’s eruption over the song’s comeback, but the former has decided to make it known, that the mashup is actually a ‘Dua Lipa X Abhijeet’ moment, and not a ‘Dua Lipa X SRK’ one, as is being professed by the internet.

Since Saturday, the singer has been sharing multiple stories to his Instagram handle, with reels which echo this thought. He also shared a video of the moment to his feed, with ‘Dua Lipa (heart) Abhijeet’ on it, interlaced with footage of him singing Woh Ladki Jo. While Abhijeet’s credit for the song is of course something that can’t be taken away from him, the internet hasn’t really been paying much heed to his self-promotion.

Instead, all their sympathies lie with the DJ who created the mashup in the first place, Ruchir Kulkarni. Originally created by him in October 2022, the song quickly caught on fire in the reel world. As of today, the audio uploaded to his Instagram handle sits at a plush 1.5 million views and counting. Some comments lauding the DJ read: “Ruchir kulkarni, the guy who made the mashup is the only one deserving of the credit. Not srk, not the lyricists, singers, directors etc etc. I mean it’s an iconic song and it’s cuz of all those ppl. But Dua didn’t perform it cuz it’s a srk song she did it cuz the mashup went viral” and “Seriously, it’s pissing me off how many people are ignoring the DJ. This is only and only his brain child. These useless bollywood credit mongers should zip it”.

What’s your take on this situation?