Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s Sprite ad under fire for ‘hurting’ Bengali sentiments. Here’s why

Bengali community filed a police complaint against the CEO of Coca-Cola India and actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui with the Kolkata Police for allegedly hurting their sentiments in its advertisement of Sprite. The ‘joke’ cracked in the ad allegedly hurt the Bengali community and is derogatory, the complaint said.

“The main advertisement by Coca-Cola for its product Sprite was in Hindi. And we have no problems with that. We only have a problem with Bengali dubbing of the ad which is running on various TV channels and websites. Actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui is laughing at one of the jokes, which says, ‘shoja anguley ghee na uthley, Bangali khali petey ghumiye porey’. In English, it means that if Bengalis don’t get anything easily, they sleep hungry. And this, we think, hurts the sentiments of the Bengali community,” the petitioner, who is also an advocate of the Calcutta High Court, Dibyayan Banerji, said.

Banerji further said, “There is nothing offensive in the Hindi advertisement. But it attracts section 66A of the IT Act and also section 153 A of the Indian Penal Code. We also want this type of shallow act and gimmicks to not be promoted in the future.”

The literal meaning of the joke is, “If they can't take the ghee out with a straight finger, Bengali sleep hungry.”

The company pulled down the ad from TV and its social media platforms after complaint. Sprite India said in a note written in Bengali that it regrets the recent ad campaign for the cold drink and that the company respects Bengali language.