On Sunday, 21st August 2022, the food delivery company Zomato issued a clarification on its ‘Mahakal Thali’ advertisement. On Saturday, a controversy erupted over an advertisement by the company. 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. Now the company has clarified that the ad referenced ‘thalis’ at ‘Mahakal Restaurant’, and not the revered Shree Mahakaleshwar Temple.
According to the Gurgaon-based firm, the ‘Mahakal thali’ commercial is a part of a pan-Indian campaign that identifies the best restaurants in each city and their most popular meals. The statement from Zomato added that Mahakal Restaurant is one of their high-order-volume restaurant partners in Ujjain and thali is a recommended item on its menu.
The statement said, “We deeply respect the sentiments of the people of Ujjain, and the ad in question is no longer running. We offer our sincerest apologies, for the intent here was never to hurt anyone’s beliefs and sentiments.”
The Mahakaleshwar or Mahakal temple of Shiva in Ujjain is one of twelve ‘Jyotirlingas’. Zomato has furnished this clarification after ‘Boycott Zomato’ became a trending topic on Twitter as two priests of Ujjain’s Shree Mahakaleshwar Temple demanded the immediate removal of the Hrithik Roshan-starring advertisement. The Prasad of the Mahakaleshwar Temple is distributed to the devotees on a platter that is Thali. The priests stated that their prasad is not something that can be ordered online through a meal delivery service.
They also spoke with Ashish Singh, the district collector for Ujjain, to demand that Zomato be punished. The head of the Mahakal temple trust, Ashish Singh, told reporters that the advertisement was “misleading” because the temple only provides free food called “prasad,” which cannot be ordered.
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.