Actors Salman Khan, Ram Charan, Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan perform during the pre-wedding celebrations of Anant Ambani, son of Mukesh Ambani, the Chairman of Reliance Industries, and Radhika Merchant, daughter of industrialist Viren Merchant, in Jamnagar, Gujarat.
| Photo Credit: Reuters
Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan is facing backlash for calling Telugu actor and RRR star Ram Charan ‘idli’ in jest at the pre-wedding celebrations of industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s son Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant in Jamnagar.
Recently, a video went viral of the three Khans — Shah Rukh, Salman and Aamir — dancing to ‘Naatu Naatu’ at the bash. They were joined on stage by Ram Charan.
However, while inviting Ram Charan on stage, SRK was heard reeling off unintelligible Tamil phrases and also calling the actor ‘idli’.
Khan’s remarks have been criticised as a display of Bollywood’s casual racism towards, and stereotyping of, South Indians.
Zeba Hassan, Ram Charan’s makeup artist, alleged that Shah Rukh Khan disrespected the ‘RRR’ actor with his ‘Idly vada’ remark .
Hassan also claimed that she “walked out” of the event after that happened.
Taking to Instagram, Hassan posted a video on her stories where Shah Rukh invited Ram Charan on stage which she captioned, “Bhend idly vada Ram Charan kahan hai tu?? I walked out after this. So disrespectful for a star like @alwaysramcharan.”
Soon after she made the claims, several social media users expressed their disappointment over SRK’s ‘idly’ remarks and called them “insensitive.” A user wrote, “As a South Indian I feel very anguished on SRK for calling Ram Charan Sir by racist way.” Another user wrote, “Calling a South Indian ‘idli vada’ can never be funny.”
(with ANI inputs)
