Munmun Dutta, popularly known for her role of ‘Babita’ in the serial Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah, lately made headlines and stirred controversy on social media on the weekend when she used an objectionable casteist comment on one of her videos.
Munmun Dutta uploaded a makeup routine video on social media on Sunday. In the video, she used the casteist slur as a reference to bad physical appearances. She talked about adding lip tint in her make-up routine because she wanted to look nice for her upcoming YouTube video.
However, upon telling that she does not want to look terrible she referred to the casteist slur “bhangi” and proceeded to say she wanted to rather look nice. The slur is deeply offensive for India’s scheduled castes and marginalized communities and a famous television celebrity using that agitated netizens.
After the video went viral and netizens started demanding her arrest, Munmun Dutta issued an apology in both English and Hindi on Twitter. Since Munmun is Bengali, she called her use of slur involuntary since due to the language barrier, she was misdirected about the meaning of the word. Along with the note, she said she discarded the video as soon as she was made conscious of the blunder.
Earlier two FIRs have filed in Haryana and Madhya Pradesh each against the Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah actress. A third one has been reported in Mumbai. Munmun Dutta has been booked under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.