Actor-model Lisa Ray, who starred in the popular 90s hit Afreen Afreen, admits to feeling “uncomfortable sharing or celebrating” the track.

Sharing a clip of the song — composed and sung by the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan — on Instagram, she wrote, “The song often plays on cue for events where I am invited to speak and I inwardly cringe while offering a polite smile. Today, as great troubadours I listened to in my youth are passing into the light, I recognise the power of a song to evoke an emotional response in the audience that is tied to who you once were.” She continues, “Hearing this song today is no longer about a personal association but represents a universal rite of passage — in the same timbre of falling in love for the first time, writing your first poem, reflexively planning your future — a pitch, a note, a video that reminds us of a world of beauty and possibility and innocence that once was. But what would be a revelation today is others also comprehending this truth and freeing me from an association with the song, for the reasons and more above (I’m just walking around in the desert after all).”

However, fans and followers urged her to cherish the song in their comments on the post. One fan wrote, “This song is truly a rite of passage for so many of us, I feel it in my soul and in fact it was the song I danced to at my wedding sangeet.”

Another commented, “Look at it with gratitude grace love... It got you fame and you look absolutely gorgeous in this song.”