Netizens call for Zomato boycott again

Over the weekend, #Boycott_Zomato was trending on Twitter as netizens took offense to a variation of a YouTube pre-roll ad starring actor Hrithik Roshan.

“Thaali khane ka man tha, Mahakaal se mangaa liya (I wanted to have a thaali, I ordered it from Mahakaal)” says Roshan in the ad. According to a OpIndia article, Mahesh, the temple priest at the Mahakleshwar temple in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh said that this dialogue had hurt the sentiments of the Hindu community and in turn, insulted the Mahakaleshwar temple.

The ad uses location data to personalise and localise these ads. This variation of the ad was viewed in For example, if a viewer watching the ad in Khanna, Punjab, Roshan will admit that he was craving a burger from OneBite burger - a local restaurant which is popular there. The campaign was conceptualised by Enormous Brands.

In response to the calls for the brand's boycott, Zomato has pulled the ads off air. The food delivery aggregator has been tweeting a statement (both in Hindi and English) in response to those who had posted online about calling for a boycott of the company.

The statement clarified that 'Mahakal' referred to in the ad points to 'Mahakal Restaurant' and not the Mahakaleshwar Temple. It added that Mahakal restaurant is one of Zomato's high-order-volume restaurant partners in Ujjain and the thali is one of the most highly recommended items on its menu. The thali is also a prasad handed out at the Mahakaleeshwar temple, and this was why tweeple called for the brand's boycott.