Music composer Amaal Mallik launched a pointed public broadside against what he described as orchestrated negative publicity targeting his song 'Yeh Awarapan' from the Emraan Hashmi-starrer 'Awarapan 2', taking to Instagram on Wednesday, 26 August with a lengthy, impassioned statement directed at the film and music fraternity.

What Mallik Said

In his post, Mallik drew a sharp line between commercial identity and artistic integrity. 'I've never needed marketing budgets to manufacture my identity. People know my music because they have lived their lives through it,' he wrote. He described his compositions as deeply personal — 'My songs are my babies, and trust me when I say I'm a dangerous dad' — and warned industry peers against targeting the song, which he said was 'delivered just three weeks ago.'

He also invoked his father's emotional response to the track, noting that the elder Mallik was 'blown away' and had 'tears in his eyes' — a detail he attributed explicitly to his father's own words.

The Core Grievance

Mallik alleged that 'Yeh Awarapan' was being criticised specifically because it carries sonic echoes of songs from the original 'Awarapan' (2007) — a creative choice he defended as intentional and thematically consistent. He argued that the original film, widely considered a commercial failure at the time of release, has since attained cult status over 20 years, vindicating its emotional core. 'A super flop film, a 2007 original, became a cult 20 years later,' he wrote, framing this as proof that 'soul and self-belief can make anything happen.'

Shots at Industry Practices

The composer did not stop at defending his own work. He took aim at what he characterised as widespread manipulation — from purchased views and clicks on music videos to corporate bulk bookings that artificially inflate box-office numbers. 'Nothing wrong with it as most people do it rampantly nowadays to continue to maintain a false crown they themselves placed on their head,' he wrote, stopping short of naming individuals. He also urged fellow artists to focus on building original legacies rather than benchmarking themselves against him.

The Awarapan 2 Context

Produced by Vishesh Films, 'Awarapan 2' is a sequel to the 2007 Mahesh Bhatt-produced cult film, reuniting the franchise with Emraan Hashmi two decades later. Mallik credited Vishesh Films with teaching 'entire generations that emotion outlives trends' — a philosophy he said has guided his own career since childhood. He signed off with a defiant note: 'They tried to bury us but didn't realise that we were seeds.'

The outburst is the latest in a pattern of Mallik publicly calling out industry practices, and it signals that the debate around 'Awarapan 2' and its music is far from settled.