BBC World Service releases documentary on Sidhu Moosewala on YouTube

Chandigarh: British broadcaster BBC World Service on Wednesday released a two-part documentary on Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala on YouTube, who was gunned down in his car in 2022, while his father fights a court battle to get a stay on the film.

The release of the documentary 'The Killing Call' coincides with the birth anniversary of Shudhdeep Singh Sidhu, popularly known as Sidhu Moosewala.

Moosewala's father Balkaur Singh filed a petition on Tuesday in a Mansa court in Punjab, seeking a stay on the screening of the documentary.

The court of civil judge (senior division) had adjourned the matter to June 12.

Moosewala's father in his plea submitted that the documentary could compromise the ongoing trial in his son's murder and infringe upon the family's privacy.

Balkaur's counsel Satinderpal Singh said no consent of the family was taken before making the documentary on Moosewala.

Earlier, when he came to know that the documentary was to be screened in Juhu on June 11, Balkaur wrote to the Maharashtra Director General of Police and Juhu Police Station in Mumbai to ban the screening.

Moosewala was shot dead in Punjab's Mansa district on May 29, 2022, in his car. He was on his way to Jawahar Ke village in Mansa with his friend and cousin.

Canada-based Goldy Brar, a member of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, had claimed responsibility for the broad daylight murder that hogged the headlines for weeks.

The BBC documentary focuses on Moosewala's early life, his rise to fame in the music world and circumstances of his killing.

It features interviews of Moosewala's friends, a Punjab Police officer, and a few journalists.

The BBC World Service in the description of the documentary wrote, "On 29 May 2022, Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala was murdered by hired hitmen who followed his car, shot him through the windscreen, and left him to die." Three years since the murder, no-one has been convicted of this murder, the motives remain murky, and Goldy Brar is still on the run, it reads.

"BBC Eye Investigations has been talking to some of the people closest to Sidhu Moose Wala, tracing his rise from obscurity to stardom, finding out how he made enemies of India's most feared gang, and asking why they wanted him dead.

"It's a story that takes us from the villages of rural India to the hip-hop scene of eastern Canada, from the turbulent history of Punjab to the contested politics of modern India, and from the shadowy world of organised crime to a chilling phone call with the fugitive gangster, who says he ordered the hit.

"Based on hours of unseen archive and exclusive access to Sidhu's friends and musical collaborators, the film features voices that have never spoken to the media before," the description continues.