Legendary singer Rahat Fateh Ali Khan apologised on Saturday and owned a video circulating of him physically abusing his “student” after it generated online furore at his behaviour.

Earlier in the day, a video doing the rounds on the media showed the singer beating ostensibly a domestic servant repeatedly over a missing “bottle”.

The video generated intense criticism by netizens towards the singer.

In an apology video issued later today, the singer said it was a “personal matter between a teacher and his student” and identified a person, Naveed Hasnain, saying he was the individual being beaten in the video.

Hasnain said the “bottle” responsible for the controversy in the original video contained “water sanctified by a pir”, adding that he had misplaced the bottle and forgotten about it.

“He is my father and my teacher. He loves us a lot too. Whoever has done this act [of leaking the video] is plainly blackmailing to defame my teacher.”

The singer added that he had asked forgiveness from Hasnain the next instant.

The singer is the nephew of Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and grandson of Ustad Fateh Ali Khan. He is also the recipient of the Sitara-i-Imtiaz.

He was awarded an honorary degree by the Oxford University in 2019. The singer was recognised by the university as a “Pakistani singer, primarily of Qawwali”, and was accredited for more than 50 albums, over one billion views online, more than 50 title tracks of television serials and over 100 film songs in both Hollywood and Bollywood.