I thought Salman had forgiven me: Arijit Singh

Arijit Singh whose new song has been dropped from the actor's upcoming wrestling drama sent him a public apology for an ill-advised joke. Now, the singer promises to go to his apartment to mend bridges; the actor's team insists he isn't angry and the matter is a non-issue.

On Tuesday, around 11 pm, Arijit Singh sprung a surprise on the social media by posting a public apology to Salman Khan. It came on the heels of the singer learning that his song, "Jag Ghumiya", had been dropped from Bhai's upcoming wrestling drama. Not many were aware of the preceding drama before Arijit's post that referred to a 2014 awards show where he'd won the Best Singer Award and managed to irk the actor with an ill-advised joke.

A video throwing light on the turn of events from the aforementioned show surfaced shortly after the singer's public apology, which he admitted to being his last resort to reach out to Sallu. Turns out Arijit had dozed off backstage during the show and had to be summoned repeatedly to accept his award from hosts, Salman and Riteish Deshmukh. When asked what took him so long to reach the stage, he joked, "Aap logon ne toh sula diya..." to which Salman retorted, "Aur isme humara koi dosh nahi hai, agar aise hi gaane bajte rahenge...". The 50-year-old actor appeared to have taken Arijit's off-the-cuff remark on the chin, even humming his chartbuster "Tum Hi Ho" from Aashiqui 2 before handing him the award and congratulating him.

A source close to Salman reiterated to Mirror that what happened that night was all in good humour. "Salman was being funny, just like Arijit. There were no hard feelings. He is wrongly being called a bully. It just so happened that a song, that got dropped was sung by Arijit but that's a call the producer, director and marketing guys take, not just Salman. He is not holding any grudges."

Meanwhile, Arijit deleted the original post, only to share another one that read, "I hope he gets my letter somehow. This whole thing will backfire I know. Prayers..." Obviously he still believes Bhai is angry with him.

When Mirror got in touch with the singer, he informed that he'd been working at a recording studio when Mukesh Bhatt dragged him to the show. Arijit was so tired that he fell asleep for a moment and had no idea what was happening, until someone woke him up. "I was also nervous as it was my first awards show. Salman Khan looked at me and started to laugh as I obviously didn't look like a winner in casuals and slippers. When he asked me if I had fallen asleep, it slipped out of my mouth from nervousness and embarrassment. It wasn't directed at him or anyone in particular but I knew I shouldn't have said it. I am a huge fan of Salman's work and I felt terrible. When he hugged me on the stage, I apologised in his ear and went back. The same night I texted him a "sorry" and followed it up with a long apology note. He replied in the morning with a rebuke and advised me on how to behave. But he added that he was okay, which made me happy and relieved. It was only later that I realised he wasn't. I have been apologising for almost three years now."

Then, the "Samjhawan" hitmaker was summoned to sing a song for Sallu's Eid release, leading him to believe that things had finally been sorted out. "I thought maybe he had forgiven me and recorded the song. Everyone okayed it but I heard last night that he doesn't want my voice in the final master. That really hurt," he says.

Next up on Arijit's agenda is landing up at Salman's residence to apologise in person. "I tried to reach him last night as well but in vain. So I resorted to a social media apology hoping it will reach him. I knew people would misinterpret it and when it instigated arguments I thought I should remove it. I am not in Mumbai at the moment or I'd have gone to his apartment last night. I am going to do that once I am back. I have hopes that he will be fine with me one day," Arijit asserts.

Meanwhile, his fans are upset that he chose to publicly apologise to Salman despite being a big name in the industry himself. "I would request my fans not to react like this. They are all my well-wishers and they will be fine," he reasons.

When Mirror got in touch with Salman Khan's team, his spokesperson informed, "We would not like to comment on the matter and we will not be releasing any official quote soon about the Facebook post as well. This is a non-issue!"