Bollywood megastar Salman Khan has stoked anger and outrage after saying he felt like a “raped woman” because of a hectic film shoot.
Khan, 50, is playing a wrestler in his upcoming blockbuster Sultan, and he has to engage in physically gruelling activity for multiple hours at a time.
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“While shooting, during those six hours, there’d be so much of lifting and thrusting on the ground involved,” said Khan. “When I used to walk out of that ring I felt like a raped woman … I could not take steps.”
The National Commission for Women (NCW) in India said he would be issued with a summons if he did not say sorry within a week. While Khan did try to retract the statement, it had already been disseminated to the media and was a fruitless effort.
His father Salim Khan, a veteran screenwriter and actor, asked people to forgive his son’s remarks.
Twitter was awash in indignation after Khan’s comment made the rounds.
There was also the defending contingent (which is large, considering Khan is one of the biggest stars in the world), those who said Khan’s comment was a slip of the tongue and nothing more.
According to an audio recording of the interview, the comment was met with laughter by attending media. In the same interview, Khan said he was able to quit every “vice” (cigarettes, alcohol and coffee), but not women.
Khan’s representative says the actor was simply “joking.”
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India has seen sexual assault and violence increase over the last several years, with stories of brutal gang rapes and underage victims being reported disturbingly frequently.
Khan is no stranger to controversy: in 2015, he was acquitted after being charged with a hit-and-run, which left a homeless man dead and four others injured.