Diljit Dosanjh, Neeti Mohan, and Shankar Mahadevan are facing backlash on Twitter for an insensitive and sexist prank they played on the sets of the show Rising Star 3. The judges apparently teamed up with the participants and were later called out for the prank by gender equality activist Kirthi Jayakumar.
During one of the episodes of the show, two contestants began praising Neeti Mohan. They said that the singer looked “raapchik” and “kadak” in a red sari. Neeti then expressed her intolerance of such inappropriate and sexist comments. She said that she was representing women and such language can’t be used against any woman.
She then started to walk off in protest. Diljit Dosanjh and Shankar Mahadevan, after criticizing the actions of the contestants, intervened and told the show organisers to ask the contestants to come later. However, all the three judges soon broke into a fit of laughter and admitted that they were joking. Shankar Mahadevan also said that the prank was, in fact, the contestant's idea.
Twitter user and gender equality activist, Kirthi Jayakumar, then took to the social media website to publish a thread of tweets condemning the actions of the judges. She said that she was “absolutely appalled” at how the #MeToo movement had been thrown “under the bus”.
Kirthi also wrote about how casually sexual harassment in the industry is treated. Many other Twitter users joined in and supported her comments.
(With inputs from Hindustan Times)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)