All Pakistani songs removed from Spotify in India

Popular Pakistani music has been abruptly removed from the popular streaming platform Spotify in India, sparking concern and disappointment among music lovers. 

Hits like "Maand," "Jhol," and "Faasle," along with numerous other tracks, disappeared from the platform on Wednesday night, leaving a void for listeners across the border.

This move comes in the wake of an advisory issued by the Indian government on May 8, directing all Over-The-Top (OTT) platforms, media streaming services, and digital intermediaries to immediately cease the streaming of content originating from Pakistan, NDTV reported. 

"OTT platforms, media streaming platforms and intermediaries operating in India are advised to discontinue the web-series, films, songs, podcasts and other streaming media content, whether made available on a subscription-based model or otherwise, having their origins in Pakistan with immediate effect," the advisory read.

The advisory, citing national security concerns following "Operation Sindoor" and the recent terrorist attack in Pahalgam, invokes Part II of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. 

The advisory explicitly instructed platforms operating in India to discontinue all Pakistani web series, films, songs, podcasts, and other streaming media content, regardless of their availability model.

The impact of this directive has been felt across various music platforms. Besides Spotify, changes have also been observed on platforms like YouTube Music. Notably, Pakistani actors have been removed from the promotional material of their Hindi films.

Earlier this week, the album covers for the film "Sanam Teri Kasam" on Spotify and YouTube Music were altered to exclude the image of Pakistani actress Mawra Hocane. 

A similar edit was made to the poster of the film "Raees," where Mahira Khan's image was removed, leaving only the Indian superstar.

Furthermore, the popular song "Buddhu Sa Mann" from the film "Kapoor and Sons," which featured Pakistani actor Fawad Khan alongside Indian actors, is now unavailable on YouTube in India. 

A message displayed states, "Video unavailable. The uploader has not made this video available in your country." The song was originally posted by Sony Music India, and its poster on various music applications has also been modified to exclude Fawad Khan.

Responding to these developments, Deepak Mukut, the producer of "Sanam Teri Kasam," told the Hindustan Times, "They didn't ask me, it's their decision. Whatever our government says, everyone has to follow."