By PTI
MUMBAI/ LOS ANGELES: Several Indian film celebrities such as Ranveer Singh, Vicky Kaushal as well as Canadian rapper-singer Drake paid homage to popular Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala, who was shot dead on Sunday by unidentified assailants in Punjab’s Mansa district.
The 27-year-old singer, also a Congress leader, was killed a day after the state government curtailed his security cover.
Singh and Kaushal took to their Instagram accounts and quoted the refrain from the late singer’s song “Dil Da Ni Mada”.
Singh, who performed at the Indian Premier League closing ceremony on Sunday in Ahmedabad, also shared Moosewala’s picture on his Instagram Stories and captioned it: “IMMORTAL”.
Drake took to his Instagram Stories on Sunday night to remember Moosewala.
“RIP MOOSE @sidhu_moosewala,” he captioned a picture of the “So High” hitmaker with his mother.
In 2020, Drake made headlines when he started following Moosewala on Instagram. Moosewala, who counted Drake as one of his music influences and followed him on social media, was a regular performer at live shows in Canada.
Calling Moosewala a talented artiste, Punjabi superstar Diljit Dosanjh said he was heartbroken by the singer’s death.
“Heartbreaking news. He was a talented boy. I never met him but his hard work spoke a lot. No doubt. It’s very hard for parents…A bad day for the music industry,” the actor-singer wrote in Romanised Punjabi.
Actor-singer Harbhajan Mann also posted the picture of Moosewala and said, “Waheguru ji RIP #Moosewala.”
Singer Jasbir Jassi and Punjabi film actor Binnu Dhillon dubbed the killing of Moosewala as unfortunate.
“RIP Sidhu Moose Wala veere,” Jassi posted on his Facebook page while posting his picture with Moosewala.
Popular Punjabi singer Parmish Verma and actor-singer Gippy Grewal also paid tribute to Moosewala on social media.
Music composer Salim Merchant, whose song with Moosewala is up for a release, said he was “shocked” by the singer’s untimely death.
“I’m shocked & saddened by the news. Sidhu was a gem..our song was going to release very soon..this is unbelievable,” the musician wrote on Twitter.
Earlier, actors Ajay Devgn, Richa Chadha, Kapil Sharma, Swara Bhasker, music composer Vishal Dadlani, and popular TV host Rannvijay Singha among others also tweeted their condolences for Moosewala.
On Sunday, Deputy Superintendent of Police (Mansa) Gobinder Singh told PTI that Moosewala was attacked when he was in his jeep at village Jawahar Ke and several bullets hit him.
Besides the singer, Moosewala’s cousin and a friend, who were travelling in a Mahindra Thar jeep with him, were also injured in the attack.
Punjab police DGP on Sunday had said, “This incident seems to be a case of an inter-gang rivalry,” adding that the Lawrence Bishnoi gang was behind the murder of Moosewala.
At least three weapons were used and 30 empty cases were recovered from the site. Moosewala was left with two Punjab Police commandos after the state police withdrew two of four commandos from his security cover.
However, Moosewala neither took the remaining two commandos with him nor his bullet-proof vehicle on Sunday.
Moosewala was among the 424 people whose security was withdrawn or curtailed by the Punjab Police on Saturday on a temporary basis.
