Tamil singer Chinmayi Sripada calls out Rahat Fateh Ali Khan for ‘horrendous’ abuse towards his disciple

Renowned Pakistani crooner Rahat Fateh Ali Khan found himself on the receiving end of a backlash after a video of him, assaulting a disciple went viral on X (formerly Twitter). The Qawwali singer was severely chastised by netizens for his act of callous brutality against an employee.

Tamil singer Chinmayi Sripada also called out the singer for his inconsiderate attitude towards his students.

Taking to X (formerly Twitter), the songstress wrote that the advent of the digital era had made the public take off the rose-tinted glasses and realising that many of their idols had feet of clay.


“Some of these people behave like such gentle, soft-spoken souls in public, one would never think they’d be capable of such inhumane behaviour. If only cameras existed earlier – more of those we celebrate as so-called greats would have been exposed for what they actually were to other people. Horrendous,” she wrote.

The video, which started doing the rounds on Twitter, on Saturday, showed the ‘Tere Mast Mast Do Nain’ singer swearing at a man, and throwing a shoe at him when he failed to fetch a bottle of alcohol. He is also seen slapping the servant as he sets off to search for the bottle.

A Twitter user named Ghulam Abbas Shah shared the clip on X, and wrote, "Famous singer Rahat Fateh Ali Khan beating his servant for a bottle of Alcohol.." The clip went viral on the microblogging site and gained more than 2.1 million views.

Later, the singer tried to make amends. In a video shared by senior journalist Tariq Mateen, the singer reveals that he had apologised to his disciple and that he shouted at him as the bottle he had been given contained holy water that had religious verses chanted over it by a pir.

He also said that there was no ill intention behind his actions and described the incident as a personal matter between an ustad (teacher) and his shagird (disciple).

Needless to say, the clarification video did not go down well with Sripada, who pointed out how many teachers tend to take advantage of their position of authority and abuse students. “The justification he gives here is ‘The teacher showers love on the student when they do well, and the punishment is equally harsh when they make a mistake.’ Gurus get protected by the ‘divinity’ of their position, regardless of the faith/religion they practice – all their transgressions, from violence, and emotional abuse to sexual abuse are condoned for the sake of their ‘artistry’, ‘talent’ etc, etc. This needs to stop,” she wrote.