Two priests from Ujjain’s historic Mahakal temple demanded on Saturday that online food delivery company Zomato remove an advertisement starring Bollywood actor Hrithik Roshan because it offends Hindu feelings. Roshan claims in the advertisement that he wanted a thali (meal platter) in Ujjain and ordered from ‘Mahakal.’
The makers of The ad clarified that the ad is talking about the The Mahaka hotel of Ujjain and not the temple.
Zomato and Hritik Roshan testing the patience of Hindus !
— Guruprasad Gowda (@Gp_hjs) August 21, 2022
Just because Hindus don't issue #SarTanSeJuda call does not mean one can hurt the feeling of Hindus time and again !
Hindus demand apology from Zomato !#Zomato_Insults_Mahakal #Boycott_Zomatopic.twitter.com/iYFZiQzSS4
The Mahakaleshwar or Mahakal Shiva temple in Ujjain is one of twelve ‘Jyotirlingas’ that draw devotees from all over the country. Mahesh and Ashish, temple priests, said Zomato should withdraw the advertisement immediately and apologise.
Devotees are served ‘prasad’ on a thali and the ad hurts the feelings of Hindus, they claimed. They also approached Ujjain district collector Ashish Singh who is the chairman of the Mahakal temple trust and sought action against the company so that no one mocks the Hindu religion again, the priests said.
Speaking to reporters, Singh termed the ad as ‘misleading’, saying that the temple offers free meals as ‘prasad’ and it is not sold.
Soon after the ad surfaced on social media, netizens started trolling Hrithik Roshan as well as the food-delivery company for deliberately hurting sentiments of Hindus.
On the work front, Hrithik Roshan has films like ‘Vikram Vedha’ and ‘Fighter’ under his belt. The actor was recently massively trolled massively on Twitter after he gave a shoutout to Aamir Khan’s Laal Singh Chaddha and appealed against the ‘boycott culture’.
In his shoutout to Laal Singh Chaddha, Hrithik Roshan wrote: “Just watched Laal Singh Chaddha. I felt the HEART of this movie. Pluses and minuses aside, this movie is just magnificent. Don’t miss this gem guys ! Go ! Go now . it. It’s beautiful. Just beautiful.” However, he too became a target of the trolls and they demanded to boycott Hrithik’s upcoming film ‘Vikram Vedha’.
