Red FM radio jockey Malishka Mendonsa and her team’s dance for Olympic gold medalist Neeraj Chopra before an online interview hasn’t gone down well with netizens. A clip shared by Mendonsa on Twitter shows her and her team performing to a song from the 1957 film Naya Daur with the camera eventually panning to a laptop where India’s star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra had joined them over a Zoom call.
Chopra, who won India’s first Olympic gold medal in athletics at the recently-held Tokyo Olympics, seemed visibly uncomfortable during the interview.
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“Ladiesssss..Yes I got the hard hitting, deep answers too but..Take the first 4 secs before the cam moves to the zoom call to guess who we are dancing for,” RJ Malishka captioned the video, which has racked up over 1.3 million views since being posted on the microblogging platform on August 19.
Several Twitter users who commented on the post were not only unimpressed by the Red FM team’s dancing skills, but also pointed to the possibility of the video being dubbed sexist had gender roles been reversed.
“Utterly embarrassing. If the genders were reversed, it would be considered sexual harassment,” one wrote. Several others described the performance as “shameless objectification” and “cringeworthy.”
There was also furore over another clip from the interview, wherein RJ Malishka asks Neeraj Chopra for a virtual hug. Chopra politely turned down the Malishka’s request for ‘jaadu ki jhappi’, saying he would rather say the traditional greeting of Namaste from a distance.
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi invited for breakfast Chopra and several athletes from India’s Olympic contingent to his official residence in New Delhi. While hailing Chopra’s gold-winning feat at the Olympics, PM Modi said, “When you threw your second attempt, you celebrated straight away, this can only come on the back of a lot of confidence.”