Karachi, Jun 18: A popular restaurant here in Pakistan's biggest city has come under fire after it used a popular scene from Alia Bhatt's "Gangu Bai" movie to promote a men's day at the eatery.
The restaurant, Swings, on Friday faced ire at social media for using a scene from the movie, based on the real life story of a sex worker who fought for the rights of women from her own community, where the actress who is forced into prostitution after being left at Kamathipura, tries to hauntingly attract her first customer.
Her clip and dialogues "Aja na Raja - what are you waiting for?" have been used to attract customers for a men's day special at the restaurant.
The restaurant's post read: "Swings is calling out all the Raja's out there. Ajao and avail a 25 per cent discount on Men's Monday at Swings!
Facing massive criticism on social media and by its customers, the owners of the restaurant came out with a half-hearted apology which only fired up more criticism.
People were appalled at the restaurant which had used as a marketing strategy an edited clip from the Sanjay Leela Bhansali movie as a promotional gimmick on its social media pages.
The social media was flooded with criticism of the promotional gimmick with content creator Daniyal Sheikh in a Facebook post writing: "What is this? It's promoting sexual abuse of women and literally making fun of women who are forced to be a prostitute. Try to be responsible.
"If you guys think that this is some sort of marketing strategy and this will gain you some attention and customers then you're sadly mistaken! Using a clip from a movie based on prostitution just shows how low and shallow you can get just for publicity, another user wrote.
Another user wrote that they didn't expect such an advertisement from the restaurant and that they were "extremely disappointed" with the marketing gimmick.
The restaurant on Friday night issued a clarification to calm down the social media users and only landed itself into more trouble.
Just a concept. We didn't mean to hurt the sentiments of anyone. The movie and this post is based on a concept. Like before, we're open to all and will be serving you with the same love like we always have," the owner clarified, drawing more ire with many calling out "Swings" for a terrible marketing team and a tone-deaf statement.
View this post on Instagram
Swings, a restaurant in Karachi, thought it appropriate to use this painful scene from @aliaa08’s Gangu Bai for a men’s day promotion. Their apology is as tone-deaf as the campaign glorifying sexual abuse and women who are forced into prostitution. pic.twitter.com/XY2cyl1yKD
— Niha Dagia (@nhd00) June 18, 2022
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Cape Canaveral (AP): NASA's two stuck astronauts headed back to Earth with SpaceX on Tuesday to close out a dramatic marathon mission that began with a bungled Boeing test flight more than nine months ago.
Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams bid farewell to the International Space Station — their home since last spring — departing aboard a SpaceX capsule alongside two other astronauts.
The capsule undocked in the wee hours and aimed for a splashdown off the Florida coast by early evening, weather permitting.
The two expected to be gone just a week or so after launching on Boeing's new Starliner crew capsule on June 5. So many problems cropped up on the way to the space station that NASA eventually sent Starliner back empty and transferred the test pilots to SpaceX, pushing their homecoming into February. Then SpaceX capsule issues added another month's delay.
Sunday's arrival of their relief crew meant Wilmore and Williams could finally leave. NASA cut them loose a little early, given the iffy weather forecast later this week.
They checked out with NASA's Nick Hague and Russia's Alexander Gorbunov, who arrived in their own SpaceX capsule last fall with two empty seats reserved for the Starliner duo.
“We'll miss you, but have a great journey home,” NASA's Anne McClain called out from the space station as the capsule pulled away 260 miles (418 kilometers) above the Pacific.
Their plight captured the world's attention, giving new meaning to the phrase “stuck at work”.
While other astronauts had logged longer spaceflights over the decades, none had to deal with so much uncertainty or see the length of their mission expand by so much.
Wilmore and Williams quickly transitioned from guests to full-fledged station crew members, conducting experiments, fixing equipment and even spacewalking together.
With 62 hours over nine spacewalks, Williams set a new record: the most time spent spacewalking over a career among female astronauts.
Both had lived on the orbiting lab before and knew the ropes, and brushed up on their station training before rocketing away. Williams became the station's commander three months into their stay and held the post until earlier this month.
Their mission took an unexpected twist in late January when President Donald Trump asked SpaceX founder Elon Musk to accelerate the astronauts' return and blamed the delay on the Biden administration.
The replacement crew's brand new SpaceX capsule still wasn't ready to fly, so SpaceX subbed it with a used one, hurrying things along by at least a few weeks.
Even in the middle of the political storm, Wilmore and Williams continued to maintain an even keel at public appearances from orbit, casting no blame and insisting they supported NASA's decisions from the start.
NASA hired SpaceX and Boeing after the shuttle program ended, in order to have two competing US companies for transporting astronauts to and from the space station until it's abandoned in 2030 and steered to a fiery reentry.
By then, it will have been up there more than three decades; the plan is to replace it with privately run stations so NASA can focus on moon and Mars expeditions.
Both retired Navy captains, Wilmore and Williams stressed they didn't mind spending more time in space — a prolonged deployment reminiscent of their military days. But they acknowledged it was tough on their families.
Wilmore, 62, missed most of his younger daughter's senior year of high school; his older daughter is in college. Williams, 59, had to settle for internet calls from space to her mother. They'll have to wait until they're off the SpaceX recovery ship and flown to Houston before the long-awaited reunion with their loved ones.