Entertainment

Mahakal Ad Controversy: Zomato Withdraws Ad And Issues Apology

• By All That Trending
• 22-08-2022
• 19.52K

You can’t ditch the eye of the internet in the present world because there’s nothing that gets unnoticed in the world of social media. And, this is what led to the Mahakal ad controversy. The food delivery company, Zomato, has withdrawn its recent advertisement, starring Hrithik Roshan for allegedly hurting the sentiments of Hindus, at large. Furthermore, the company issued an apology statement saying that the intent was never to mar anyone’s beliefs or sentiments.  The controversy got highlighted on Saturday, when several priests from the Mahakaleshwar temple in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh objected the content of the Hrithik Roshan Zomato ad. The ad had a scene where the actor says, he felt like having a ‘thali’ (food platter) in Ujjain, so he ordered it from ‘Mahakal’. Protesting against this portion of the ad, priest Mahesh Sharma said, “Mahakal temple doesn’t delivers any thali, Zomato and Hrithik Roshan must apologize for the ad”. He further added, “The company had made a misleading statement about the temple, and it must have been careful before issuing such advertisements”.  The priest, in this context, also approached the chairman of the Mahakal temple trust, Ashish Singh, who is also the Ujjain Collector, and sought action against the food delivery company. Soon, after the Zomato news went viral, several users posted boycottzomato through their twitter handles.  Following the controversy and the loud noise on social media against the Hrithik Roshan Mahakal Thali Ad, the Home Minister of Madhya Pradesh Narottam Mishra issued directives to the Madhya Pradesh police to look into the matter and take the necessary action at the earliest. 

Zomato’s Response To Mahakal Ad Controversy

Referring to the allegations, the company tried to put ahead its clarification on the matter, this Sunday. Acting on this, food aggregator Zomato issued an apology statement while clarifying the fact that the term Mahakal used in the advertisement was referred to the popular Mahakal restaurant of the city and not the Mahakaleshwar temple.  The Zomato management clarified that Mahakal restaurant is one of its high-order-volume restaurant partners in Ujjain. They said, thali (food platter), is one of the most demanded item on the menu of the Mahakal restaurant. The company further clarified that this video was a part of the pan-India campaign for which they identified the top local restaurants and their most-popular dishes. And, thali from the Mahakal restaurant was one of them.  https://twitter.com/zomatocare/status/1561363480745213953 The statement further mentioned an apology reading, “We deeply respect the sentiments of the people of Ujjain and the ad in question is no longer running”. Crux Of The Issue So, that’s how the Zomato Mahakal ad got into controversy, and now that the company has issued an apology, there’s no clue on what the authorities are going to do next. The boycott movement running on the internet has caused a lot of loss to many companies, and keeping the repercussions in mind, Zomato has already made its point clear. Now, only time will tell the consequences. As of now, the Zomato ad has been put down and it’s not running anymore.  Hrithik Roshan, on the other hand, has not spoken anything on the issue yet.

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