On Saturday, a controversy erupted around a new advertisement by the online food delivery company Zomato. The Zomato advertisement featuring Bollywood superstar Hritik Roshan allegedly showed the actor in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, and asking for food delivery from the Mahakaleshwar Jyotirlinga temple.
According to the reports, the Hindu saints of the Mahakaleshwar temple have condemned the advertisement in which the actor says, “Thaali khane ka man tha, Mahakaal se mangaa liya (I wanted to have a thaali, I ordered it from Mahakaal)”. Mahesh, the temple priest said that the actor and the advertisement had hurt the sentiments of the Hindu community and insulted the Mahakaleshwar temple.
He added that the company had used the temple to promote its service blatantly. “The Zomato company should have thought before doing something like this. Hindus are sensitive about their religion. Just because we do not outrage, companies should not take advantage of that. If such advertisement would have been made on other religion, those people would have set the company on fire”, he added.
Mahesh further added that devotees at Mahakaleshwar temple are served the prasad in thali (plate) but it is no way delivered on demand. “The company which also delivers non-veg food should immediately stop promoting their services by using the name of Mahakaleshwar temple. The advertisement has hurt the religious sentiments of Hindus. We strongly oppose this. If the company does not apologize then we will go to court”.
Meanwhile, Collector and chairman of Mahakal temple committee Ashish Singh agreed with temple priest Mahesh. He said that the temple prasad plate can be taken only in the food area in the Mahakal temple. The plate is not sent anywhere from here. “We will take action to stop this type of misleading advertisement”, he noted.
Mahakaleshwar temple is one of the 12 jyotirlingas and every day thousands of devotees are served free food in the temple. Reports mention that serving free food is one of the important temple traditions that has been going on for hundreds of years.
Zomato is an Indian multinational online restaurant search and food delivery company. It was founded by Pankaj Chadha and Deepinder Goyal in the year 2008. This company was established under the name FoodieBay. It was replaced by Zomato (Zomato Media PVT Ltd.) on 18 January 2010.
