Case filed against Nawazuddin Siddiqui for 'hurting' Bengali community with Sprite ad

A case has been filed against actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui and the CEO of the Indian division of Coca Cola for allegedly ‘hurting sentiments’ of the Bengali community. The actor featured in a Sprite ad that was originally shot in Hindi. While no objections have been raised with the Hindi version of the ad, a Kolkata-based lawyer has objected to a line in the Bengali version.

(Also read: Jogira Sara Ra Ra teaser: Nawazuddin, Neha Sharma's romcom is all about jugaad)

The ad is part of the new campaign of the soft drink brand. It promotes the new feature of the drink's bottle that allows the consumer to scan the QR code and listen to jokes.

Advocate Dibyayan Banerji, of the Calcutta High Court, has filed the complaint, as per a report of LiveMint. It quoted Dibyayan telling the court, “The main advertisement by Coca-Cola for its product Sprite was in Hindi. And we have no problems with that. We only have a problem with Bengali dubbing of the ad which is running on various TV channels and websites. Actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui is laughing at one of the jokes, which says, ‘shoja anguley ghee na uthley, Bangali khali petey ghumiye porey’. In English, it means that if Bengalis don’t get anything easily, they sleep hungry. And this, we think, hurts the sentiments of the Bengali community. We want this type of shallow act and gimmicks to not be promoted in the future."

The report added that the company has pulled down the Bengali version of the ad featuring Nawazuddin after the complaint and also said in a note issued by Sprite India that it "regrets the recent ad campaign for the cold drink and that the company respects Bengali language".

Nawazuddin now awaits the release of two interesting and different kinds of projects. One of them is Sudhir Mishra’s Afwaah which stars him alongside Bhumi Pednekar. The film is slated for a theatrical release on May 5. It also features actors Sumit Kaul, Sharib Hashmi, Sumeet Vyas, TJ Bhanu and Rockey Raina in important roles.

Nawazuddin will also be seen in Kangana Ranaut's production Tiku Weds Sheru. He also has Kushan Nandy's Jogira Sa Ra Ra and Noorani Chehra alongside Nupur Sanon.