Rising Star 3 started a few weeks back and is already embroiled in a controversy. The show, which is hosted by Aditya Narayan and has Shankar Mahadevan, Diljit Dosanjh and Neeti Mohan in the judges’ seat has upset women and those fighting for the #MeToo movement. The trio have been slammed on social media. It happened after two participants used words like ‘kadak and Raapchik’ to describe Neeti. The singer looked glam in a red saree for the episode. The singer got offended and schooled them for using cheap language on the show. She said they were on a responsible platform. The singer said, “I am representing all the girls here and I don’t allow this. No one can talk to me, or any girl like this in this country or any country. We three judges don’t approve this, the show doesn’t approve this, the channel doesn’t approve this way of talking.”
The lady threatened to throw them out of the show. However, when she saw them all apologetic and scared, she burst into laughter along with Diljit and Shankar. Later, it was revealed as a prank and the two young men touched her feet as well. This prank bit did not go down well with gender equality activist, Kirthi Jayakumar and Chinmayi Sripaada who tweeted about it. Pretty soon other women spoke against this said prank as well.
Absolutely appalled at how @neetimohan18, @diljitdosanjh, @Shankar_Live and the rest of the crew literally threw the #MeToo movement under the bus on @ColorsTV. Speaking up about sexual harassment is not easy, and here you're all belittling it as "mazaak".
— Kirthi (@kirthijayakumar) March 23, 2019
Hi Shankar sir and Neeti – I called out Mr Vairamuthu and have been banned by the TN dubbing union.
Please do know this aint funny. I am fighting a court case.
Though support would have been great, this tone deaf ‘joke’ could have been avoided.
???
— Chinmayi Sripaada (@Chinmayi) March 24, 2019
Agree. I was zapped at their behaviour. This his exactly how rape culture gets normalized. Shame on the channel and the judges for do this. You are part of the problem.
— Amena (@Fashionopolis) March 24, 2019
This really is very shameful. Here hundreds of women are fighting for their rights. And this is how they decide to act. Do these celebrities even think for one second that they are national youth figures and should think before doing these type of stupid things…
— Nausheen Fatima (@Naushee05002956) March 24, 2019
We have to see how the judges answer the queries of everyone who is upset with the team.
