Singer Neha Kakkar recently came under fire for arriving over three hours late to her concert in Melbourne, Australia. The delay sparked outrage among fans, many of whom paid around 300 AUD (approximately Rs 16,000) to attend. Videos from the event showed the singer breaking down on stage as the crowd booed and expressed their frustration.
Neha later accused the event organisers of mismanagement, claiming she was not paid for the performance and that her team was denied basic arrangements like food, hotel, and water. She also alleged that technical issues delayed her sound check. “I performed absolutely free for my Melbourne audience. The organisers ran away with my money,” she said in a statement.
However, Australian event organisers Pace D and Bikram Singh Randhawa have now responded, disputing Neha’s version of events. Speaking with Siddharth Kannan, they shared that Neha had two scheduled shows—one in Sydney, which reportedly went well with 1500–2000 attendees, and another in Melbourne, which drew a much smaller crowd of about 700 people.
They claimed Neha refused to take the stage after seeing the lower turnout and demanded that the venue be filled before she performed. “She said until you fill up the stadium, I won’t perform,” they alleged. The duo also countered her sound check claims, stating that other performers had already used the same setup without any issues.
View this post on Instagram
On the matter of payment and hospitality, the organisers insisted Neha had been fully paid in advance—a standard practice in Australia—and pointed out she was seen travelling in a luxury G-Wagon. “Where was she staying if there was no hotel?” they asked, adding that a lineup of cars and booked accommodations were in place for her team.
They also claimed the poor turnout in Melbourne caused a financial loss of 500,000 AUD for the organiser, and that delays caused by Neha have led to them being banned from certain venues.
In response to Neha’s public accusations, they released a detailed expense report to back up their side of the story.