India removes Pakistani songs from Spotify abruptly, causing concern and disappointment among music lovers. Hit songs such as “Maand,” “Jhol,” and “Faasla,” along with several other tracks, were removed from the platform on the night of Wednesday, leaving people shocked across the border.
According to an Indian media report, they made this move after an advisory issued by the Indian government on May 8th, 2025. It directed all OTT (Over The Top) platforms, streaming media services and digital intermediaries to instantly end and discontinue the streaming of the content originating from Pakistan.
The advisory instructed, “OTT platforms, media streaming platforms and intermediaries operating in India are advised to discontinue the web-series, films, songs, podcastsand other streaming media content, whether made available on subscription-based model or otherwise, having their origins in Pakistan with immediate effect.”
Moreover, the advisory cites national security concerns after” operation Sindoor” and the Pahalgam Terrorist attack and requests Part II of intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code of 2021. Despite their availability model, the advisory clearly ordered all the platforms operating in india to cease all Pakistani songs, films, podcasts, web webseries and other content.
Various platforms across the country affected by this directive, such as Spotify and YouTube Music, have already made changes. Additionally, Pakistanis have also been removed from their Hindi films’ promotional material earlier this week. The album covers for the film “Sanam Teri Kasam” on YouTube Music and Spotify were modified by removing the image of Pakistani Actress Mawra Hocane.
Similarly, the poster of the film “Raees” also removed the image of Mahira Khan, leaving only Sharukh Khan on the edit. Even the popular song from film “kapoor and Sons” song “Buddhu Sa Mann” which features Fawad Khan, Pakistani well known face along with Indian actors, is now disappeared on YouTube in India.
Furthermore, a message also displayed saying ”Video unavailable” means the video is now not available in the country by the uploader. Sony Music originally posted the song and its poster on various musics, which were modified to remove Fawad Khan.
The producer of “Sanam Teri Kasam,” Deepak Mukut, in response to these changes, told the “Hindustan Times” that they didn’t ask him; it’s their decision. And whatever the government ordered, everyone has to follow it.
