Long, long ago Salman Khan was declared controversy’s favourite child in Bollywood. And with every new release, Bhai just seems to be inviting more and more trouble his way. A video (unverified) has been circulating which sees Salman on a dance reality show, and at one point he says ‘I look like a Bhangi…doing this step’.
Shilpa Shetty also uses the word loosely to describe how she looks when she’s at home. This has reportedly angered the Valmiki Samaj from Rajasthan, who have filed an FIR against both the actors for equating the name of their community with slang.
Shilpa shetty and salman khan using by dirty word in valmiki samaj. pic.twitter.com/YaDE1WPC0I
— Vijay Purabiya (@purabiya_vijay) December 21, 2017
The president of the action community has written to the DCP of South Delhi, demanding action be taken against the two Bollywood stars. The FIR has reportedly been filed at a police station in Churu, Rajasthan. The Valmiki community is made up of a cluster of dalit communities – Bhangi, Mehtar, Chuhra, Lal Beghi and Halalkhor.
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The protests weren’t entirely peaceful, as it was later reported that scores of protestors were detained in Jaipur, Bikaner, Ajmer and Alwar for burning the posters of Salman Khan’s latest film, which released yesterday. There were further reports of a group of 30 protestors vandalising a cinema inside a Kota mall, of which 2 were detained.
Earlier this year, we saw the same insensitivity towards the marginalised communities, when a Jazz club based in Delhi hosted the performance of a band which tried to do a play on the word ‘Bhangi’. The club was called out for it, creating a huge furore about the owner’s insensitivity towards the dalit communities.
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