Cover your ears, Ranbir is about to sing

Fans of Bollywood superstar Ranbir Kapoor - you may want to look away from this. Or failing that - leave your sound on mute. A video of Ranbir rehearsing for his 2011 Rockstar role has surfaced on social media, helpfully captioned "Childhood ruined." As Ranbir's tuneless singing fills the screen - as far away as you can get from his character Jordan's soaring vocals - you can almost hear the claws being sharpened in the comments section as keyboard warriors rush to fill the vacuum in all their savagery.

"Now that's the real reason Heer died," hypothesised one fan, referring to Jordan's love interest, played by Nargis Fakhri.

Rockstar charts the journey of a rockstar taking the world by storm and his tragic ill-fated love story, which ends with Heer's untimely death. Ranbir's tortured portrayal of Jordan drew critical acclaim, but it was singer Mohit Chauhan who lent his voice to Jordan's vocals - and after the newly surfaced video of Ranbir, it is not hard to see why.

"How can I unsee this?" posited another aghast commenter. Whilst it is impossible to 'unsee' it, another fan noted, "He's even scared away the birds."

Yet another user failed to see how none of the crew visible in the video reacted to Ranbir's attempts at singing. "How are all these people working there with a poker face?"

Others, however, found space in their hearts to stay away from the "let's mock Ranbir mercilessly" train, and suggested bringing to the fore his other skills (none of which include singing.)

"He is an "actor", he has to act, that's what he is doing and [is] very good at it. It's not that hard to understand," wrote one fan in defence. "You can't criticise someone on the basis of them being out of their forte," added another loyal commenter.

Others still had a much longer defence prepared. "I wonder how you can judge an actor on the basis of 12 hours of continuous shooting, costume change, makeup, travelling, more than 120 retakes for each scene, being on a strict diet, remembering the upcoming dialogue deliveries, and also being in character," read one long heartfelt comment.

Another fan let their feelings be known in one short emotional plea: "Let artists be artists - love them for their part."

One thing is clear: Ranbir's ambit lies solely in the world of acting. Singing? That is best left to the professionals.