Food delivery app Zomato on Thursday took down its ad meant to spread "awareness" about the potential of plastic waste and benefits of recycling following backlash on social media. The Zomato ad in question showed the actor in the ad film representing everything that "garbage" can be recycled into. However, featuring the actor who played the role of "kachra" in Lagaan as "human trash" did not go down well with people as they took to Twitter to express their disappointment with the ad film.
"On world environment day, our intent was to spread awareness about the potential of plastic waste and benefits of recycling in a humorous way. Unintentionally, we may have hurt the sentiments of certain communities and individuals. We have taken down the video," read the statement by Zomato.
The video was criticised for showing the character from Lagaan as hand towel, table, lamp and flower pot.
Users asked for apology and the video to be taken down.
Film director Neeraj Ghaywan, known for critically acclaimed film 'Masaan' had raised objection with the ad campaign and said, " that the character "Kachra" from the movie Lagaan "was one of the most dehumanised voiceless depictions of Dalits ever in cinema."
"Zomato had used the same character and made a repulsive casteist commercial. A human stool? Are you serious? Extremely insensitive!," added the director in his tweet. Zomato took down the ad and said, "Unintentionally, we may have hurt the sentiments of certain communities and individuals. We have taken down the video."
