Rahat Fateh Ali to perform in Gurgaon

NEW DEHLI: Rahat Fateh Ali Khan’s Indian fans were disappointed when one of his concerts was cancelled due to visa issues, but they won’t be when they discover the singer will be performing on Sunday.

The popular singer faced a police complaint following his cancellation of a live concert that was to be held at the Gymkhana club in Gurgaon. The organisers, Trzy Events, had filed a police complaint against the singer for his failure to turn up for a show last week in Delhi’s neighbouring Gurgaon town due to visa problems. A representative of the organisers said, “He (Khan) said that his travel permission was till Mumbai only and he could not come to Delhi.”

Trzy Events was forced to call off the concert due to the singer’s unavailability. But now Khan has received a visa and Trzy Events have withdrawn the complaint against the singer. “We have taken back the complaint after a mutual settlement between the organisers and Rahatji’s manager. Now the concert will take place on Sunday and Rahatji is coming a day prior to it. We have already received a copy of his visa,” Chaitanya, a member of organising committee, told IANS.

The organisers had earlier decided to return money to those who had bought tickets, but are now working a way out to retain those who had already booked their tickets. “The response is good and the sales are shooting. The tickets that we sold earlier have been put on hold and can be retrieved by the same people who had bought them earlier.”

Rahat Fateh Ali is a very popular playback singer in India, and has contributed to the soundtracks of Love Aaj Kal, My Name is Khan, Ishqiya and the upcoming Karan Johar production We Are Family.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 8^th, 2010.