Priyanka Chopra blasts ‘shameful’ Indian body spray ad promoting rape culture

Bollywood celebrities including Priyanka Chopra, Richa Chadha and Farhan Akhtar are among those to have lambasted the commercial for Layer’r Shot, a brand of male fragrance, calling it “shameful,” “disgusting” and “incredibly tasteless.”Its controversial advert shows four men appearing to stalk a frightened-looking woman in a store before cutting to one of the men saying, “We’re four, there’s one, who takes the shot?”Only when the woman turns round does it become clear they are talking about the body spray — which one of the men then takes from a store shelf and uses.The commercial caused a storm on social media, where critics including various celebrities blasted its innuendo as making light of rape. Many said the timing of the advert made it particularly insensitive, as it was broadcast just a week after a case in which a 17-year-old was allegedly raped by five men in the southern city of Hyderabad — “Creatives, script, agency, client, casting… does everyone think rape is a joke?,” Chadha tweeted. Responding to Chadha’s Tweet, Quantico star Priyanka Chopra called the ad “shameful and disgusting” and said she was glad that the ministry has taken it down.Film writer and director Farhan Akhtar also slammed the advertisement.”What incredibly tasteless and twisted minds it must take to think up, approve and create these stinking body spray ‘gang rape’ innuendo ads. Shameful,” tweeted Akhtar, who is also a United Nations Women’s Goodwill Ambassador.Actress Swara Bhasker said both the perfume brand and its marketing agency had been “tone deaf” given the alleged gang rape of the teenager in an upscale part of Hyderabad last Saturday. The case has shocked the state of Telangana, of which Hyderabad is the capital. Telangana’s home minister Mohammed Mahmood Ali said on Saturday that “strong action will be taken against all the offenders, irrespective of their background.” It was “a ghastly incident,” the minister tweeted on Saturday.An earlier version of this story gave the wrong last name for UN Women’s Goodwill Ambassador Farhan Akhtar Additional reporting by CNN’s Esha Mitra