Key Takeaways
- The Raazi song controversy started when several Pakistani actresses used “Ae Watan,” the patriotic track from the 2018 Alia Bhatt film Raazi, in their Independence Day reels on August 14.
- Indian social media users pointed out that “Ae Watan” was written for an Indian spy’s story, calling it strange to use for Pakistan’s celebration.
- The backlash spread quickly on X and Instagram, with the phrase “India wale mazak udha rahe hai” becoming a rallying cry among angry commenters.
- This isn’t the first time a Bollywood patriotic song has been caught in a cross-border row, and it likely won’t be the last.
The Raazi song controversy broke out after a handful of Pakistani actresses used “Ae Watan,” the patriotic track from Alia Bhatt’s 2018 spy drama Raazi, in their Independence Day videos on August 14. Indian users on X and Instagram called it out within hours, accusing the actresses of borrowing a song written for India’s side of the story to mark Pakistan’s day. The clips have since drawn thousands of comments, most of them furious.
What Exactly Sparked the Raazi Song Controversy?
Pakistan’s Independence Day falls on August 14, a day before India’s on August 15. As is now routine on Instagram and TikTok-style reels, several Pakistani actresses and influencers put together tribute videos to mark the occasion. A few of them chose “Ae Watan” as the background track.
That choice is what set off the Raazi song controversy. “Ae Watan” isn’t a generic patriotic tune floating around Bollywood‘s back catalogue. It’s written specifically for Raazi, a film about an Indian woman spy who marries into a Pakistani military family to gather intelligence during the 1971 war. Using that song for a Pakistani Independence Day post struck many Indian viewers as either careless or deliberately provocative.
Why Is “Ae Watan” Such a Loaded Choice?
Composed by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy with lyrics by Gulzar, “Ae Watan” plays at a pivotal emotional moment in Raazi, directed by Meghna Gulzar. The film, based on Harinder Sikka’s novel Calling Sehmat, follows an Indian agent operating undercover across the border. The song itself is about longing for one’s homeland — which is exactly why Indian viewers felt it was jarring to see it repurposed for a celebration of the country it was, narratively speaking, working against.
Film buffs on social media were quick to point out the irony. One widely shared comment, cited by News9live, read roughly as “India wale mazak udha rahe hai” — meaning Indians were mocking the choice as tone-deaf at best and insensitive at worst.
A Quick Timeline of the Raazi Song Controversy
| Date | What Happened |
| August 14 | Pakistani actresses post Independence Day reels using “Ae Watan” from Raazi |
| August 15 | Indian users spot the clips and begin flagging the song’s Indian, wartime context |
| August 16 | Criticism trends on X, with users mocking the choice as “mazak” (a joke) |
| August 17 | Coverage of the row spreads to Indian entertainment portals, keeping the debate alive |
How Did Indian Social Media React to the Row?
The reaction wasn’t subtle. Comment sections filled up with screenshots comparing the film’s plot to the reels, along with jokes about Pakistani celebrities picking “the wrong homeland anthem.” Some users were more measured, arguing that a song can transcend its original context and that not every viewer treats Bollywood music as strictly nationalistic property. But the louder, more viral thread was mockery — memes questioning whether anyone on the production side had actually watched Raazi before hitting publish.
A smaller but vocal group pushed back on the outrage itself, noting that Bollywood songs cross the border informally all the time — Pakistani weddings, dance reels and radio shows have long borrowed Hindi film music regardless of plot. For them, the Raazi song controversy said more about how quickly Indian social media reaches for outrage than about any real intent to provoke.
This Isn’t the First Cross-Border Song Row
Bollywood music getting caught in India-Pakistan sensitivities isn’t new. Patriotic tracks from films like Border, Gadar and Uri have periodically resurfaced in unrelated contexts across the border, drawing similar flak. What makes the Raazi song controversy stand out is the specificity of the plot — Border or Uri are broadly patriotic, but Raazi is a story explicitly about espionage against Pakistan, which is precisely why the mismatch felt so pointed to Indian audiences this time.
It’s a reminder of how streaming-era access has blurred old boundaries. A song written for a niche wartime drama can end up on a stranger’s Independence Day reel a continent away within years of release, stripped of its original context and repurposed for an entirely different audience.
Original Angle: Why This Keeps Happening on Independence Day Week
Every mid-August, the back-to-back Independence Days of Pakistan and India create a short window where patriotic content from both film industries gets recycled at scale. Reels editors often pick tracks by mood and instrumentation rather than plot, which is how a spy-thriller anthem ends up soundtracking an unrelated celebration. It’s less a deliberate dig and more a symptom of how fast short-form content gets made — but that nuance rarely survives the outrage cycle.
FAQ
What is the Raazi song controversy about?
It refers to the backlash after several Pakistani actresses used “Ae Watan,” a song from the Indian film Raazi, in their Pakistan Independence Day reels on August 14, prompting criticism from Indian social media users.
Which song caused the row?
“Ae Watan,” composed by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy with lyrics by Gulzar, from the 2018 film Raazi starring Alia Bhatt.
Why did Indian users object to the song choice?
Because Raazi’s plot centres on an Indian spy operating inside Pakistan, many felt the song was an odd, even insensitive, pick for a Pakistani Independence Day tribute.
Have Pakistani actresses responded to the criticism?
Reports so far mostly cover the online backlash itself; there hasn’t been a widely confirmed, detailed public response from the actresses involved.
Has this kind of cross-border song controversy happened before?
Yes. Bollywood patriotic songs from films like Border, Gadar and Uri have periodically triggered similar debates when used outside their original context.
The Raazi song controversy is likely to fade the way most reel-driven rows do — a few days of viral mockery before the timeline moves on. But it’s a neat snapshot of how patriotic pop culture, once uploaded, stops belonging to just one side of the border.