A video of actor Mukesh Khanna, who played the titular character in the Doordarshan superhero show Shaktimaan, has gone viral and many social media users are criticizing the actor for making sexist comments. In the video, Khanna says that a woman's job is to manage the house and women should not try to be like men.
Khanna says:
"Aurat ka kaam hai ghar sambhaalna jo, maaf karna main kabhi kabhi bol jata hu. Yeh problem kaha se shuru hui hai MeToo ki jab aurato ne bhi kaam karna shuru kar diya. Aaj aurat mard ke saath kandhe se kandha milane ki baat karti hai. (A woman's job is to manage the house. I'm sorry but sometimes I end up saying this. The problem of #MeToo started when women started working. Today women want to walk shoulder-to-shoulder with men.)"
He further adds, "Log woman lib ki baat karenge, lekin main aapko bata doon, problem yahin se shuru hoti hai. Sabse pehle jo member suffer karta hai woh ghar ka bachha suffer karta hai jisko maa nahi milti hai. Jab se shuruat hui, tab se yeh bhi shuruat hui ke main bhi wohi karungi jo mard karta hai. Nahi, mard mard hai aurat aurat hai. (People will talk about women's liberation but I'm telling you this is where the problem begins. The first person in the family who suffers is the child who doesn't have his mother. The problem started when women started saying that they wanted to do what men were doing. No, men are men and women are women.)"
Social media users have been criticising him for his regressive and misogynistic ideas. Take a look:
On 31 October, Khanna took to Instagram to share the full interview and clarify his stance.
The caption read, "I am not against Women Working
As I said let me show you my full interview taken by someone from which this “ Vivadit Bayan” has been taken to malign me that I mean “ This”which I don’t mean. I was just commenting on how Me too can happen. You can see yourself in this interview how I respect women."
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