Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar has been caught in the throes of controversy after many netizens found an advertisement he featured in to be disrespectful towards Maratha workers.

In the Nirma washing powder ad, Akshay Kumar plays the role of a Maratha ruler who has just returned victorious from a battle. He and his men are jubilant about the victory and wish to spend some time in merrymaking, but the queen is dismayed by their soiled clothes, anxious about the effort they might have to put in to clean them.

At that moment, the king intervenes and assures the royal household that he and his men are capable of cleaning out the enemies as well as clothes and get on to soak their white clothes in Nirma washing powder.

This, many social media users, found condescending. The users called out the advertisement for making a mockery of the valiant Maratha warriors and sought a boycott of the detergent brand.

Soon, the hashtag #BoycottNirma began trending on the microblogging platform Twitter and has received more than 22,000 tweets already.



#BoycottNirma

Nirma makes a mockery of Maratha soldiers, to sell washing powder !*

Remove Nirma advertisement immediately

Not at all tolerate insult of Great Maratha Warriors pic.twitter.com/7Rp3oGhPzo — kirtirajsingh (@kirtirajsingh11) January 8, 2020



#BoycottNirma

We are demanding Nirma to withdraw the offensive advertisement in which the great Maratha soldiers shown wrongly, they have made use of our brave Maratha Soldiers to sell their product and tender an unconditional apology immediately ! pic.twitter.com/XCv2g1HvGH — Prachiti (@prachiti13) January 8, 2020



Candian Tu Nrc Ke Baad Desh Se Nikala Jayega Tu Refugee Hai

How Many People Want Akshay To Leave India And Go Back Canada #BoycottNirma pic.twitter.com/l8ifH3oPjc

— Devil Virpalsinh (@virpalsinhjetha) January 8, 2020



#BoycottNirma

Hindu Janajagruti Samiti demands that,

1.Nirma Limited and Akshay Kumar should apologies publicly

2.Withdraw the advertisement from all media #BoycottNirma pic.twitter.com/VbxxPVeFpH

— Datta Gaikwad (@Dattatr70830898) January 8, 2020



Beautiful message through Nirma ad, we should all appreciate the message of 'Gender equality'.#NirmaAdvanceSochAdvance

#BoycottNirma pic.twitter.com/W4E5ZSFLCv

— পাখি রায় (@giveaward) January 8, 2020



Inspirational post #NirmaAdvanceSochAdvance is always acceptable for everyone. Really a creative and eye-catching ad. #BoycottNirma pic.twitter.com/bwqKZxzPkS

— ROMEN KONER (@Romen_kr) January 8, 2020



Amazing ad by nirma and Akshay Kumar nailed it ! Check this out guys ! #BoycottNirma #NirmaAdvanceSochAdvance pic.twitter.com/H8Av4uzqA7

— Manish Prasad #20xZoom (@i_manishp95) January 8, 2020



I think this ad sends a very strong message for all the people.#NirmaAdvanceSochAdvance & #BoycottNirma pic.twitter.com/T1DMq0XlZu

— Vishal shaw (CRYPTO) (@ItzvishalRo45) January 8, 2020



Gender equality matters a lot. So nice ad this is #NirmaAdvanceSochAdvance #BoycottNirma pic.twitter.com/1LdOJuXZg0 — Ankita Garg (@NonyGarg3) January 8, 2020

According to a Navbharat Times report, a complaint has been filed against Akshay Kumar at Worli Police Station in Mumbai by one Suryakant Jagannath Jadhav. He mentioned in his plaint that advertisement makes a joke at the expense of Marathi culture.Meanwhile, a section of Twitter users has come out in support of the advertisement for promoting gender equality, with some users promoting it with the tagline "Great warriors always help their family".