Neeti Mohan, Diljit Dosanjh, Shankar Mahadevan’s sexist prank on a Rising Star contestant angers twitterati

Singing reality show Rising Star has found itself in another pool on controversies after judge Neeti Mohan played a sexist prank on a contestant of the show along with her co-judges, musician Shankar Mahadevan and singer-actor Diljit Dosanjh. Two contestants, named Kunal and Shikhar appeared on the stage and after wooing the judges with their singing, one of them complimented Neeti Mohan calling her “kadak and raapchik”. Reacting harshly to the statement, Neeti said that the comments were rude and decided to walk away from her seat. Just when the contestant got worried that they have made a blunder, the judges revealed that it was prank and started laughing.

While the judges were very pleased with the jokes, the sexist prank didn’t go down well with gender activists Kirthi Ajay Kumar as she condemned the judges’ prank tweeting, “Absolutely appalled at how @neetimohan18, @diljitdosanjh, @Shankar_Live and the rest of the crew literally threw the #MeToo movement under the bus on @ColorsTV. Speaking up about sexual harassment is not easy, and here you're all belittling it as "mazaak".” Soon after Twitterati also exploded on the celebrities for making fun of the #MeToo movement.

Talking to the contestants, Neeti said, “I am representing all the girls here and I don’t allow this. No one can talk to me, or any girl like this in this country or any country. We three judges don’t approve this, the show doesn’t approve this, the channel doesn’t approve this way of talking.”