Khaali Peeli makers may get in trouble for using singer Beyonce's legally trademarked name in their song | Image credit: Twitter/Reuters

Song Beyonce Sharma Jayegi from the film Khaali Peeli song came under intense backlas on social media for the racist undertones. Amid the backlash, reports also surfaced that the makers of the film may land in legal trouble for the title of the song, since American singer Beyonce has trademarked her name. That essentially means it cannot be used anywhere without her permission.

The song, shot on the film's stars Ishaan Khatter and Ananya Panday, was trolled heavily upon release on Monday, for the word "goriya" in the lyrics. The word refers to a fair woman and American pop superstar Beyonce, of African American origin, is dark-skinned.

The lyrics have now been tweaked, likely for the fear of legal repercussions, and the title now says Beyonse. Another version of the song available on Spotify says Dunia Sharma Jayegi.

Okay so after getting trolled by millions of Indians the song name is now "Duniya Sharma Jayegi" instead of "Beyonce Sharma Jayegi "!..Moral ~Never underestimate the power of a Aam Hindustani pic.twitter.com/m5rl0jmOtb

— Shh^_^ (@sayhushh) September 14, 2020

The chorus of the song goes like, "Oh tujhe dekh ke goriya... Beyonce sharma jayegi," which roughly translates to "After looking at you fair woman, Beyonce will feel shy." While it has faced backlash for blatant racism in lyrics, written by Kumar and Raj Shekhar, it triggered fears of more trouble for the makers of the film owing to the use of Beyonce's trademarked name.

In fact, Beyonce, her husband Jay-Z, have tradmarked and protected their names from being used without a permission. The couple even had their children's names trademarked.

However, despite the tweaking of the lyrics, the dislike for the song hasn't changed. The video on YouTube has so far been downvoted more than a million times, While the "likes" on the song are at mere 110K.

Director Maqbool Khan has offered apologies after the backlash over the song and said, "We assure you that the lyric in question was never intended racially. In fact, the term 'goriya' has been so often and traditionally used in Indian songs to address a girl, that it didn't occur to any of us to interpret it in the literal manner."