Baljinder Kaur, aka Kaur B, is a famous Punjabi singer who has over 4.8 million followers on Facebook.
Known for her live shows, she is currently visiting Australia to perform at various ‘Teeyan’ functions planned across the country.
Kaur B and Baani Sandhu recently performed at ‘Jhanjhara da Shor’, a ladies-only event held at Somerton in Melbourne’s north on Sunday.
To mark the success of this event, the show organiser had organised a Meet-and-Greet event at the Heritage Reception Centre, Epping on Monday.
But this event didn’t go as planned, with a group of youngsters ‘interrupting’ proceedings on the stage, wanting their queries answered by Kaur B and Baani Sandhu.
The videos supplied to SBS Punjabi shows that the chief organizer Rupinder Gurm Batra and the showbiz organizer Sukhraj Zira trying to intervene in vain.
On Tuesday, Kaur B and her singing partner Baani Sandhu addressed a press conference to explain the circumstances leading to this incident.
Punjabi singer and model Baani Sandhu, Kaur B and her brother Amar Dhillon. Source: Supplied
“We are deeply disturbed by the set of events that took place at this meet and greet event,” she told media.
“In the last five years of my career, I never experienced such humiliation. I have always tried my best to accommodate the needs of my show organisers but this experience was just outrageous.”
“We were extremely mistreated and my brother who I respect a lot was pushed and beaten up by a group of people, something that is totally unacceptable. Is this how you treat your guests?”
Kaur B said she and her team were “targeted” by a group of people with whom they didn’t “go along well” a day before.
“They expected us to be part of a dinner party at a restaurant, something that we wanted to honour despite the fact that it was a last-minute call from the show promoter and our organisers,” she said.
But the things didn’t go as planned and they decided not to go inside the restaurant for multiple reasons.
“We didn’t know the scale of the party. We were told it was a simple dinner and a few families wanted to meet us. So we dressed up very casually. But the worst part was the presence of some drunk men and we didn’t feel comfortable to be part of this dinner,” said Kaur B.
The press conference that went on for over an hour was also addressed by singer Baani Sandhu, showbiz promoter Sukhraj Zira and the show organiser Rupinder Gurm Batra.
Kaur B is currently on her tour to Australia. Source: Supplied
They not only expressed their disbelief over the set of events but also urged for suggestions from the community to avoid such incidents.
A spokesperson from Australia Ch Vasde Punjabi has denied some of the allegations levelled by the singers and their promoter Sukhraj Zira.
“We do not agree with their version of the story that was shared in the press conference last night. It is the half-truth and very soon we’ll share all the relevant information on social media,” said Mr Singh.
“In the last few years, we’ve organized many events with great success. We’ve never been involved in any such unfortunate situation.”
“We believe that we’ve been targeted as some random outsiders while our group and people from Khakh production were invited as one of the esteemed guests at this event.”
Mr Singh said his group also participated in the event to raise some ‘serious’ issues of the music industry – primarily the attitude of the Punjabi singers.
Punjabi singer Kaur B with her Australian show promoter Sukhraj Zira. Source: Supplied
“We wish them to be humble. But some of them are high-headed with little courtesy to acknowledge their show hosts, organizers or sponsors,” he said.
“We were just raising some valid points before the brother of Kaur B started abusing our members, and it resulted in some unfortunate physical altercations.”
Mr Singh said that since the police are investigating the matter he will not be able to comment further on this matter.
“We have witnesses to prove our case. The CCTV footage can further confirm what we are trying to prove,” he said.
SBS Punjabi understands that Police was also called at the Epping venue and an investigation is currently underway.
SBS Punjabi has contacted show organizers and the management of Heritage Receptions Epping for their comments.
