‘Maine Payal Hai Chhankai’ row: Neha Kakkar-Falguni Pathak’s ‘Indian Idol 13’ episode shot a month ago

Singers Neha Kakkar and Falguni Pathak have been making headlines over the last one week. It all started after the release of Neha’s track ‘O Sajna’, a remix of Falguni’s 1999 hit song ‘Maine Payal Hai Chhankai’.

A few days ago, Falguni shared screenshots of fans slamming Neha’s version of the track on Instagram. Neha, too, responded to all the hatred that she received on social media.

Now, in an unexpected twist, the singers will be seen together on the singing reality show ‘Indian Idol 13’. A promo shared by Sony TV shows Neha welcoming ‘legendary Falguni ma’am’ to the show and dancing along with co-jury panel member Himesh Reshammiya, and host Aditya Narayan.

However, it is reported that this episode was shot prior to the ongoing war of words.

According to Hindustan Times, a source close to the show revealed that the episode was shot during the auditions round in August.

‘The timing is all coincidental. They shot the chunk for Navratri. In fact, at that time, Neha and Falguni were quite cordial. Currently, Neha doesn’t even wish to talk about Falguni and was quite clear that she won’t promote the particular episode or talk about what it was like to have Falguni on the sets,’ the source close was quoted as saying.

Falguni’s team also told Hindustan Times that the shoot took place on August 20.

Singer Sona Mohapatra took to Twitter on Monday and countered claims of social media users who called ongoing feud of Falguni and Neha a ‘publicity stunt.’

‘& why are people so silly that they’re buying into the PR release of a reality show trying to ride the #FalguniPathak news cycle & discredit her reaction as a publicity stunt? Don’t they know that such shows record episodes much in advance & she must not have a clue then?’, Sona tweeted.

Dhanashree Verma and Priyank Sharma, who feature in the music video of Neha Kakkar’s ‘O Sajna’, have defended the song.

Talking to Mid-Day, Dhanashree said that she finds Neha's version even better than the original.

Dhanashree Verma told Mid-day, ‘We all love this song. We have grown up listening to this song. We still listen to this song every year. When we found out it is being recreated we both got very excited because we know the song is loved by everyone and it will be loved even further if you recreate it. The way our composers Tanishk (Bagchi) Neha, and Jaani, all these guys together, they just made it even better. They have amply justified what they had to.’

Priyank Sharma added, ‘The first time I heard this song, it took me exactly 45-50 seconds to say yes. It's an iconic song already and the way they have made it again is commendable. They justified the iconicness of the previous one for real. I was very excited.’

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