Rapper Badshah paid Rs 72 lakh for 7.2 cr views: Mumbai Police

Badshah confesses to buying 7.2 cr views for 72 lakh rupees for his song Pagal Hai in order to set a world record.

Controversy

The Mumbai Crime Branch’s Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU) questioned rapper Badshah for the third consecutive day on Saturday in connection with a social media scam involving fake accounts, likes and views. Officials claimed that during questioning, the singer confessed that he had ‘bought’ around 7.2 crore views for Rs 72 lakh for one of his songs, called Pagal Hai, in a bid to set a world record.

The rapper claimed that Pagal Hai received 75 million views on YouTube within 24 hours of its release last year. The claim was rejected by Alphabet, which owns YouTube as well as Google.

Crime Branch officials said they had a list of more than 250 questions for Badshah, whose real name is Aaditya Singh. The singer admitted that he had paid a company Rs 72 lakh, including 18 per cent service tax, to generate ‘views’ on social media, they said.

Nandkumar Thakur, deputy commissioner of police, said: “The singer confessed that he wanted to set a world record for most number of viewers in 24 hours on YouTube. That is why he paid Rs 72 lakh to this company.”

Okay, I don't this, as far as I can understand what Badshah did was get the song into ads, and that ad views were also counted in the main views which spiked the view counts. Which is something almost everyone does from Taylor Swift to Kpop artists to Spanish artists.

I cannot get what exactly this article is trying to.come up with?

MP says he confessed, Badshah denies it....yet another he said, she said. I'll wait till there are actual charges.

What a useless fellow. Anything to stroke their huge egos. Could have donated that 72lac on some worthy cause.

72 lakhs? Seriously!! I thought fake followers are cheap to buy

Khul gayee pol 😆

Originally posted by: RegressiveThug

Okay, I don't this, as far as I can understand what Badshah did was get the song into ads, and that ad views were also counted in the main views which spiked the view counts. Which is something almost everyone does from Taylor Swift to Kpop artists to Spanish artists.

I cannot get what exactly this article is trying to.come up with?

Then what would he be paying 72 lakh rupees for?

Real views was only 3 million. Log paer aaj kal chadar dekh ke nahin phaelate hai. Ek aur hai Neha Kakkar. Kisi ne suna nahin aise gaane bhi 500 million. Aur Punju singers , T-series favs ke toh kya kehne

Originally posted by: ponymo

Then what would he be paying 72 lakh rupees for?

to influence the ads placement. Like if a very large section of YouTube users get a video ad, most are bound to see it.

any ways wordings are so off here.

YouTube views ka followers se kuch lena dena nahi hain. So this whole he bought followers means either the article writer knows jackshit or that Deputy Commissioner knows Jackshit.

Originally posted by: RegressiveThug

to influence the ads placement. Like if a very large section of YouTube users get a video ad, most are bound to see it.

any ways wordings are so off here.

YouTube views ka followers se kuch lena dena nahi hain. So this whole he bought followers means either the article writer knows jackshit or that Deputy Commissioner knows Jackshit.

If he did ad placement to promote his video to get more eyeballs, that is not a big deal because almost every production house does it to promote their movies or songs. It clearly says it's an ad so there's no ethical issue there.

But did he pay some other third party to get fake views? That would be embarrassing if it gets exposed.