The Navratri festival is bringing along with its own share of trending hashtags including the #BoycottErosNow, which is occupying the top spot on Thursday. The trend comes after a section of netizens shared posts of Eros Now- a production and distribution company’s tweets with alleged sexual innuendos.
From last Saturday, when Navratri 2020 commenced, Eros Now has been posting various short videos and images from films that were produced by their company. This includes posts from the Deepika Padukone starrer 2015 film Bajirao Mastani, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Katrina Kaif, Ranveer Singh, Salman Khan, etc.
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The nature of the posts by the company was deemed to be lecherous by many as an angry Twitteratti called them out with the hashtag #BoycottErosNow. Here are some posters by the company which sparked the boycott row.
Posts like, “Be naughty, sweet to mithai bhi hai,” “Do you want to put the ‘ratri’ in my Navratri,” “You need a dandi to play dandiya- I have one,” etc caught the ire of netizens al alleging it to be “vulgar” and “disrespect to the Hindu culture.”
We must preserve cinema as a community viewing theatre experience,its more difficult to enthrall large section of audience than sexualise content for personal viewing, digitisation of art faces this major crisis, all streaming platforms are nothing but a porn hub. SHAME @ErosNow pic.twitter.com/qKHde2R4HI
— Kangana Ranaut (@KanganaTeam) October 22, 2020
This is not a joke. It is a brutal attack on Hindus.
Tell me, have you tried such vulgar jokes on festivals of other religions?
No, na?
Then why target and humiliate Hindus only?
So sorry, I am not accepting your apology.
Go and cry to those journalists who will justify the joke. pic.twitter.com/oq24yyNVu5— Soumyadipta (@Soumyadipta) October 22, 2020
Dear @krishikalulla and @ErosNow get ready to face legal music for insulting and hurting the sentiments of Hindus
Dont take us Hindus lightly warna dhandha band hojaayega ( legally ) share market mein seedha niche⬇️ samjhe
Shame on you perverts at Eros Music @HinduITCell pic.twitter.com/QdtPbIzbhp
— Ramesh Solanki (@Rajput_Ramesh) October 21, 2020
Just a small sample of the Hinduphobic posts by @ErosNow on Twitter and Instagram.
It seems brands have started offending Hindus to get cheap attention. Don’t let this attention come for “cheap”. pic.twitter.com/LFLCyAZL32
— Monica (@TrulyMonica) October 22, 2020
A section of Twitterati even went on to compare the Eid celebration posts with the Navratri posts by the company and alleged that Eros Now was “very sensitive (Sanskari) while wishing #Eid.” The situation further worsened as the COO Ali Hussein belonged from the Muslim faith and hence was attacked for “anti-Hindu” sentiments.
Look at the difference between ErosNow’s Eid wishes & Navratri wishes.#BoycottErosNow pic.twitter.com/JfaHVWrxvz
— प्रवीण चौहान 40k (@YamrajFromHell) October 22, 2020
Dear HINDUS,
They insult our deities on each nd every festival in the name of rights nd called themselves as SECULARS #BoycottErosNow
When we protest against them they named us as kattar Or Sanghi.
So be proud to be Sanatani and protest against them. #पालघर_बाकी_है pic.twitter.com/ZYZuUt3e7q— Sonal (@sonalrai99) October 22, 2020
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The company later issued an apology in regard to this issue stating, “We at Eros love and respect our cultures equally. It is not, and it has never been, our intention to hurt anyone’s emotions. We have deleted the concerned posts and we apologise for having offended anybody’s sentiments. Thanking you, team Eros Now.”
— Eros Now (@ErosNow) October 22, 2020