Ever since the incident of the injury caused to a15-year-old and another student by a chainsaw attack in Andhra Pradesh’s Anantapur district, social media has been filled with debate on the rise of violence. After the incident, several users on social media questioned whether the recent A-rated films with a lot of bloodshed and gore play a key role in normalising such violence. Ram Gopal Varma and Sandeep Reddy Vanga hit back at those who have blamed A-rated films with bloodshed and gore for normalising violence.
Now singer and music composer Amaal Mallik has also joined the bandwagon and defended films which show violence. He first reposted Vanga’s tweet on his X account, and later made a separate post to talk in detail about the debate. He shared that cinema alone cannot be blamed for someone’s actions. He stressed that family values, upbringing, the political climate in different states, and the way each person thinks and reacts all matter. He added, “I would never support anyone going into a school, college or any other place to kill someone with a chainsaw. It is horrifying and completely wrong.The attack in Andhra Pradesh deserves a serious discussion, but we should not assume that one film, song or filmmaker caused it. I have enjoyed Animal, Kabir Singh, Dhurandhar, KGF and many other films, but I have also had problems with some scenes. A film is a story, and we should know that we do not have to copy everything we see. Many people work together to make a film. These are recent examples too. He then asked why are film songs not criticised as well, as he gave examples of a few and wrote, “If we criticise films, we should be fair and look at songs too. Ban songs like Kar Gayi Chull, Rom Rom Romantic (both my songs), Beedi Jalaile, Pink Lips and Chikni Chameli, Munni Badnaam, why are they celebrated and used on reality shows ?? There are also so many songs and content pieces outside of films, specially rap music available on YouTube and Instagram, especially from the northern belt, about murder, power and aggression. Parents play these songs around their children and encourage them to dance to them.”
Some songs call women “items” or talk about picking up girls.
About Amaal and his career
He recently announced his break from film music for a year. Amaal is the son of composer Daboo Malik and the nephew of Anu Malik. He has since composed for films like Hero, Airlift, Kapoor and Sons, MS Dhoni: The Untold Story, Kabir Singh, and Vedaa. He has also lent his voice as a singer to several songs in the soundtracks he has composed.
He made his Bollywood debut as a composer with Salman Khan’s Jai Ho in 2014, but gained fame with the song Sooraj Dooba Hai from Roy the following year. Amaal used to release his indie singles prolifically early in his career, but the last of them came out in 2021.
