Zomato gets notice from National Commission for Scheduled Castes over ‘Kachra’ ad

The ad that kicked off a storm, featured actor Aditya Lakhia, who portrayed the character of 'Kachra' in the 2001 movie 'Lagaan', starring actors Aamir Khan, Gracy Singh. The advertisement

The National Commission For Scheduled Castes has served a notice to online food delivery aggregator Zomato for the portrayal of a Dalit character in one of its ad campaigns for World Environment Day.

A government panel has now said that it will investigate the matter and has also issued a notice to Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal, according to a report by NDTV.
“In case the commission does not receive a reply from you within the stipulated time, the commission may issue summons for your appearance in person,” the notice to Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal read.

The ad that kicked off a storm, featured actor Aditya Lakhia, who portrayed the character of ‘Kachra’ in the 2001 movie ‘Lagaan’, starring actors Aamir Khan, Gracy Singh. The advertisement drew a link between the character Kachra with garbage (kachra in Hindi) and was aired on World Environment Day on June 5.

After facing social media backlash and ‘Boycott Zomato’ calls over the comparison, the company took down the video and said it had “unintentionally” hurt certain communities.

The Gurgaon-headquartered company added its intent was to “spread awareness about the potential of plastic waste and benefits of recycling in a humorous way”.

“Unintentionally, we may have hurt the sentiments of certain communities and individuals. We have taken down the video,” the company said.

In the nearly 120-second ad, Lakhia was depicted as a lamp, paper, paperweight, watering can, and different types of jackets, giving out the message that garbage can be recycled and made into useful items.

“When recycled, kachra can become many things,” Zomato told viewers through the ad.

Communications strategist Karthik Srinivasan told news agency PTI that Zomato attempted a play on the word “kachra” without thinking enough about how it would look to make the character perform “seemingly dehumanising and menial tasks”.

“There’s a context to Kachra’s character in ‘Lagaan’, and within the larger spectrum of commercial entertainment in India, on how castes are portrayed, and how Dalits, in particular, are portrayed or stereotyped,” he said.

In the movie, Lagaan, the character Kachra belongs to a marginalised community and is shunned by fellow villagers. He is picked by Bhuvan, played by Aamir Khan, due to his special ball-spinning techniques and ends up playing a pivotal role in the main match against the British team.

The advertisement was criticised by many. ‘Masaan’ director Neeraj Ghaywan, filmmaker Madhurita Anand and Dalit historian Karunyakara Lella slammed Zomato over the commercial.

This is not the first time the food delivery app was caught on the wrong side of marketing.

In 2017, an outdoor ad campaign in Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru showed Hindi expletives “MC, BC”. The company said it used these abbreviations for mac n’ cheese and butter chicken. The ad was pulled down following the backslash.

Similarly in 2022, Zomato pulled down an advertisement featuring actor Hrithik Roshan who was shown to be craving for a “thali” (food platter) in Ujjain so he ordered it from ‘Mahakal’. Priests of the Mahakaleshwar temple in Madhya Pradesh objected to the ad and claimed that it offended Hindu sentiments and demanded its withdrawal. The company apologised and clarified that the ‘Mahakal’ reference was for a restaurant in the city and not the temple.

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