Singer Abhijeet Bhattacharya opened up about why he continues to hold a grudge against Salman Khan, whom he accused of promoting singers from ‘enemy’ countries.

Abhijeet Bhattacharya, who has sung many songs for Salman Khan’s films, spoke about why he holds a grudge against the actor.

Playback singer Abhijeet Bhattacharya doesn’t seem to have resolved his differences with actor Salman Khan, whom he lashed out against in a new interview, nearly a decade after he posted a tweet about Salman that caused a stir online. In 2015, Abhijeet appeared to comment on Salman’s hit-and-run case, and suggested that homeless people shouldn’t be sleeping on the streets like ‘dogs’. Later, he accused Salman of favouring singers from Pakistan, a stance that he maintains to this day.

In an interview on the Celebrania Studios YouTube channel, Abhijeet was asked about his equation with Salman, and the singer said that Salman is beneath his hate. “I don’t think he even deserves to be hated by me,” he said in Hindi. “Salman has been successful only because of the goodwill that he has, he isn’t a god, nor should he think of himself as one.”

Abhijeet said that he never tweeted in support of Salman. “How could people ever think that I would speak in support of such a man, who only promotes artists from enemy countries? Just to show his loyalty towards Pakistan, he got big Indian singers replaced by Pakistanis. Not just one, he got the top Indian singers dubbed by Pakistani artists. This was all deliberate.”

Abhijeet refused to name the Pakistani artists that Salman allegedly promoted, but made a reference to Arijit Singh being replaced by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan. He said that Arijit should never have pleaded with Salman to reinstate him. “It’s shameful. Arijit is the biggest singer in the country, and he should never have begged Salman to take him back. Instead, he should have turned his back. Sometimes I wonder if he’s even a Bengali.”

But even though Abhijeet doesn’t seem to be interested in burying the hatchet, Arjit and Salman appeared to have patched up recently. Arijit sang a song for Salman’s latest release, Tiger 3. Abhijeet, on the other hand, admitted that the big studios no longer want to work with him because of his inflammatory statements.