Moving on from India, starring Alia Bhatt Gangubai Kathiawadi Making waves around the world. While it touched people’s hearts by depicting the struggles of sex workers, a restaurant chain in Pakistan used the same context to woo customers. As many urged the restaurant to apologize, it doubled down. “Movie you fire, restaurant you do sin” Pinch
Introducing a special offer for men only, a Karachi-based restaurant chain called Swing used a heartwarming scene from the film, where an innocent Gangu, played by Bhatt, gestures to get his first customer. “Aja na king – what are you waiting for?” The restaurant chain wrote, “Calling all the kings out there.”
Morphing footage from a Bollywood film, the ad features Bhatt standing at the door and a large hoarding promoting “25% discount on men’s Mondays”. Soon, Swing began drawing criticism online for the ad, which many found “insensitive”.
As the video started hitting the internet, many thought the ad was in bad taste and asked for it to be removed. However, instead of removing it, Swing came up with an explanation that many of the views were “tone-deaf”.
The restaurant chain shared a fake newspaper where a headline read, “Aray logon, itna dil pe kyun leliya? (Why did you take it so much in your heart?)”. Another headline in the newspaper read, “If you do a movie, you do a fire, if you do a restaurant, then Papa” (If a movie does, it’s hot; if a restaurant does, it’s a sin).
In its caption, the restaurant defended the move, saying, “Just a concept. It was not our intention to hurt anyone’s sentiments. The film and this post are based on a concept.”
Despite the uproar online, the restaurant brand said it was open and later posted Instagram stories to show it was “housefull.”
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premiumThe Sanjay Leela Bhansali film focuses on the life of Gangubai, who was betrayed by her lover and sold in the red-light area of Kamathipura, Mumbai. However, she later emerged as a mafia queen fighting for the rights of sex workers.
