The End is Near is a dramatic pop song that was recorded exclusively for the 2000 Bollywood film The End of the World. This song features vocals from Scottish actor and voice actor Michael E. Rodgers, who also starred as the main protagonist in the film.
Music Video[]
A music video was filmed in a dark room at Sony Music Entertainment's studio in India. Some parts of the music video were filmed in the open fields in Pakistan.
The video consists of Michael E. Rodgers playing on a sythesizer piano in a dark room while performing the song. There are also some scenes where he was walking around in the fields of Pakistan.
Near the end of the music video, Michael starts to become rough and gets into a dramatic breakdown, still while performing the song.
The video ends with a scene where Michael plays the last notes on his synthesizer piano (in this scene, only the sythesizer piano and the performer's hands can be seen).
Release/Controversies and Classification[]
The song was played on radio stations the same day the music video and the movie was released in cinemas. The music video would play after the film, but in some cinema chains, they play the music video before the film.
After the cinematic release of the music video, viewers of the film were frightened and were worried that "the end of the world is near". Due to the panics of the country of India, the CBFC banned the music video, the movie, and the song due to "frightening references to the end of the world, the suggestive and negative atmosphere of the film and the video, and the performer's dramatic breakdown near the end of the video".
In 2017, the song's music video aired on the Indian and Pakistani feeds of NickMusic. In their airings, the video was edited in order to receive a U rating by the CBFC.
The music video was classified an A rating when it was screened in cinemas, due to "Suggestive Themes and Horror"
International Classifications[]
| Country | Rating | Reason | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Australia | M | Suggestive Themes and Horror | |
| Brazil | 12 | Frightening and Dramatic Scenes | |
| Bulgaria | D | Dramatic and Suggestive Atmosphere | |
| Canada | 14A | Frightening Scenes, Language May Offend | The "Language May Offend" reason is actually for the references to the world ending. There are no actual swear words in this song |
| China | ALL | When this video was airing on music channels in China, they had to edit the music video in order to get an all ages rating, since that's the only classification rating in China. If this video was shown uncut, it will be banned. | |
| Chile | 18 | Strong Suggestive Themes Throughout | |
| Denmark | 15 | Suggestive Themes | |
| France | 18 | Suggestive Themes and Incitement to Violence | The "Incitement to Violence" reason refers to the performer's angry breakdown near the end of the video. Although, apart from that, no real violence is shown. |
Trivia[]
This song, its music video, and the film were forgotten for the past 16 years, until 2017, when the music video aired on NickMusic in India and Pakistan, and the film aired in the summer of 2017 on Sony TV and Nickelodeon.
In the theatrical screenings of the music video, the late 1990's Sony Music Entertainment logo can bee seen at the end.
In the NickMusic airings of this song in India and Pakistan, the 2009 Sony Music India logo was seen at the end.
This song was heard in the Nickelodeon Hindi dub of the 2012 Doraemon episode "Gian's Big Show", a remake of the 2006 Doraemon episode "I'll Become a Singer by Eating Candy". This song was also heard in one episode of the Hindi dub of Wilf: The Unluckiest Music Manager of Greendale.
This song was multilingual. It was recorded in Hindi, English, French, Arabic, and Urdu.
If you look carefully when Michael was having his breakdown, you can see a quick, "blink and you'll miss it" scene of a of the performer's hand, near the waist of his black trenchcoat, giving the middle finger to the camera, which was filmed in a dark room. This one-second scene is another reason why this video got higher classification ratings in some countries. This scene was erased in NickMusic (India and Pakistan) airings and Chinese airings of the video, while the performer's middle finger in this quick scene was blurred on airings in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, etc. This short scene was actually a fatal mistake, as the performer accidentally raised his middle finger while clenching his fist.