Bollywood actor Randeep Hooda is facing backlash for his crude joke about Indian Dalit icon and former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh Mayawati after an old video surfaced on social media.
In the video reported to be from an event from 2012, Hooda is seen making a joke about Mayawati’s desirability and her lack of physical appeal, and this hasn’t gone down well with a large section of social media users who are now demanding an apology.
“If this does not explain how casteist and sexist this society is, especially towards Dalit women, I don’t know what will. The ‘joke’, the audacity, the crowd. Randeep Hooda, top Bollywood actor talking about a dalit woman, who has been the voice of the oppressed,” wrote a social media user who goes by Agatha Shristie, along with the controversial video.
“I have to be honest, I did not get the joke at all, because my mind cannot comprehend such disgusting comments, I asked a lot of my friends and they said it’s inappropriate so I uploaded,” she claimed.
Her post has been shared widely and an apology from Hooda is being demanded.
Another social media user slammed Hooda for his insensitivity.
“The depravity of the ‘joke’ is unbelievable! And the smugness on his face while narrating this joke seems like the guy has ‘achieved’ something great by telling this joke ... And if someone is saying the actors remarks are only on account of Mayawati’s gender and caste has no role to play in it, that someone is being disingenuous to cover their own biases. And doesn’t really want to confront the whole truth,” the social media user said.
Hooda was last seen in ‘Radhe: Your Most Wanted Bhai’ in which he played a hammy drug lord in leather trench coats hoping to destroy Mumbai’s youth by making them substance abusers.
