Sara Ali Khan has been the talk of the town for quite some time lately. Not only did she earn a string of praises for her Bollywood movies like Kedarnath and Simmba but proved that she’s more than just a pretty face with her witty answers during interviews. However, it seems like Sara’s latest magazine photoshoot has not been the most ideal choice for her. From being everyone’s favourite, she’s now facing a lot of flak on social media.
Source: Instagram
The 25-year-old actress recently shot for her magazine cover debut and took to Instagram to share some glimpses. The pictures were shot in Kenya with a few Masai tribesmen and women. Although Sara looked stunning, the presence of the Kenyan tribespeople as ‘props’ in the images have not gone down too well with Twitteratti. The magazine shared a sneak peek from the photoshoot on Twitter and trolls claimed it was extremely ‘racist’ and ‘offensive’.
Several Twitter users have expressed their disappointment at the ‘tone deaf’ and ‘racist’ photoshoot. “Why is there a jumping Masai warrior behind Sara Ali Khan?? Africans are not props for your photoshoots,” one of the users wrote. Someone else commented, “Shame. I actually liked Sara Ali Khan, I thought she was different from these Bollywood clowns”.
Source: Instagram
While a South African twitter user commented, saying, “In what way is it okay to use another human being as a prop… way to disrespect Africa,” another one wrote, “This article better have content on the people & culture u have photographed, if not, this is highly offensive!! (sic)”. Furthermore, this shoot was also called out for being a “cultural appropriation”, which merely refers to the unacknowledged and inappropriate adoption of a specific culture’s customs, practices or traditionally significant aspects.
Source: Twitter
Source: Twitter
Source: Twitter
Source: Twitter
Users have not stopped expressing their anger towards this superficial disrespect of a community. One angry user said, “No. You did not just do this. I am so disgusted. Please take down this racist shoot,” someone else commented, “And I thought her Ivy League education would have taught her that it is not okay to misappropriate other cultures. Turns out Sara Ali Khan is as ignorant as other Bollywood celebrities which is kind of sad because she did come across as intelligent initially”.
Source: Twitter
Source: Twitter
Source: Twitter
Will Sara be able to survive this Twitter storm of hatred and regain her reputation? Only time will tell. But one thing’s for sure–the shoot was in extremely poor taste.
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