Zomato’s ad campaign featuring ‘Kachra’ from Lagaan draws ire on social media

Food delivery service Zomato has landed in a soup. Recently, on the occasion of World Environment Day on June 5, they came up with a video advertisement on the importance of recycling “kachra” (garbage). In a bid to appear “humourous”, the video features actor Aditya Lakhia, who played a character, from a marginalised caste, called Kachra in Aamir Khan starrer Lagaan (2001).

The ad talks about “recycling kachra” and what all garbage can turn into when recycled. The video shows Aditya, as “kachra”, being used as a table, a hand towel, a lamp, a flower pot, a piece of paper, a paperweight and even as a watering pot. It ends with the text on screen, “The last time kachra played, India won. This time, earth will win. Let’s recycle plastic #kachrabhikhelega.”

The ad didn’t sit well with many on social media and was criticised for its insensitivity and tone-deafness. Director Neeraj Ghaywan, who helmed films like Masaan and Geeli Pucchi, which shed light on struggles of the underprivileged castes, took to Twitter to express his disdain. Sharing the video link (which has now been pulled down by Zomato), the filmmaker wrote, “#Kachra from #Lagaan was one of the most dehumanised voiceless depictions of Dalits ever in cinema. @zomato has used the same character and made a repulsive #casteist commercial. A human stool? Are you serious? Extremely insensitive!”

Author Aseem Chhabra also shared Ghaywan’s post and wrote, “This is horrible @zomato. And very stupid in this day and age! We should all boycott @zomato unless they apologize in a big way!”

Zomato replied to Aseem’s post to give their official response. They said, “On world environment day, our 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.”

Podcaster and filmmaker Anurag Minus Verma also chided Zomato for the ad. Resharing screenshots from the video he wrote, “This extremely casteist campaign by Zomato is due to lack of diversity. I remember in 2017 when I told a HR in ad agency that I write for Dalit issues. She replied: “like Dalits really? Do they even exist in cities and all. Whoa. Never knew that.”