Anushka Sharma gets legal notice over casteist slur in Amazon’s Paatal Lok

Viren Sri Gurung, a member of the Lawyers Guild has sent a legal notice to Anushka Sharma, an executive producer of the Amazon Prime series Pataal Lok, for a perceived casteist slur on the show. Gurung in his legal notice, obtained by The Quint, said that the word is insulting towards the Nepali community.

"There is a clip wherein during an interrogation a lady police officer uses a casteist slur on a Nepali character. There wouldn't have been any problem had only 'Nepali' been used. But the word that follows it is unacceptable. Since Anushka Sharma is one of the producers of the show, we have served her a notice", Gurung said. He added that he is yet to receive a response from her, and that he will take the matter up with Amazon next.

Previously, an organisation representing Gorkhas had claimed that a scene in Paatal Lok contains a sexual slur directed at the community and indulges in stereotyping of the people of the Northeast, and demanded that the conversation be muted.

The Bharatiya Gorkha Yuva Parisangh (BhaGoYuP), the youth wing of Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangh, has also started an online petition seeking that the particular scene is muted and the corresponding sub-title is uploaded again with a disclaimer.

In the scene, the alleged Nepali slur has been used against a woman character whose name suggests she belongs to the Khasi community of Meghalaya, said the online petition started by Namrata Sharma, who is the social welfare secretary of the BhaGoYuP.

"Nepali is one of the 22 scheduled languages and there are 10.5 million people in India who speak Nepali as the common tongue. The Gorkha community is the largest Nepali speaking community and this is a direct insult to the community," the Bharatiya Gorkha Yuva Parisangh said. "We strongly condemn it in toughest terms and seek immediate removal of the scene's subtitles and mute the slur," the petition to be sent to Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar said.

Starring Jaideep Ahlawat, Gul Panag, Neeraj Kabi, Abhishek Banerjee, Swastika Mukherjee in lead roles, Paatal Lok was released to positive reviews on May 15.