Neha Kakkar has taken a swipe at Sunidhi Chauhan over her criticism of singing reality shows, and the internet is not particularly happy about it.
The remarks came during the launch of I-POPSTAR Volume 2, where the 38-year-old reality show judge was asked about whether the popularity of such shows had declined following Sunidhi’s comments about scripting and Auto-Tune.
The Hey Rama! singer’s response was pointed. “The fame declined because I stopped doing it. The TRPs were at their highest as long as I was doing it,” she said.
She then went further with a thinly veiled dig at Sunidhi.
“Sorry, but I would like to say, 'angoor naa mile toh angoor khate hain' log aisa bolte hain toh waisa hi hai. Angoor jisko nahi milte usko khatte hi lagte hain. Yeh show bilkul scripted nahi hai. People's lives are never scripted. Of course, we all come from a humble background, and if I get emotional listening to someone's story, so it's natural,” the Odhani singer said.
The reaction online was swift and mostly critical. “Want this level of delusion,” wrote one user. Another hit harder, “This is so disrespectful. The Kakkar family cannot sing a song even in a studio and Sunidhi delivers the best live concerts in India.” A third simply said, “The audacity!”
For the unversed,Sunidhi had spoken about her decision to step away from reality shows in a recent conversation with Shekhar Suman, explaining that the use of Auto-Tune had become a dealbreaker for her.
“I was a part of it for a very long time, but then I decided to stop because I felt it wasn’t the right place for me. You can’t do that in a reality show, where you are supposed to be all real and honest. When that started happening in reality shows, I felt things were going in a direction I couldn’t accept. That’s when I chose to step away, and I’m much happier,” the 43-year-old had said.
The What did you do crazy? vocalist had also revealed that she had been asked by makers to promote specific contestants regardless of how they actually performed — something she found deeply troubling.
Neha, meanwhile, is moving ahead with I-POPSTAR Volume 2 on Amazon MX Player, where she joins mentors Aditya Rikhari and KING, alongside host Wicked Sunny. A release date is yet to be announced.