Netflix is being urged to remove one of the episodes of The Big Bang Theory for what is being called a ‘derogatory’ term. The CBS show debuted in 2007 following the lives of four scientists in California played by Johnny Galecki, Jim Parsons, Simon Helberg, and Kunal Nayyer.
The episode in question is the first episode of season two entitled ‘The Bad Fish Paradigm’. The gang are watching a television show when Sheldon Cooper and Raj Kootherpali start discussing actress Aishwarya Ali. When Cooper compares her to Madhuri Dixit, Kootherpali responds, “Aishwarya Rai is a goddess, by comparison, Madhuri Dixit is a leprous prostitute”.
Netflix has since been served a legal notice from Indian political analyst Mithun Vijay Kumar, who called the term ‘derogatory’, continuing, “I found it highly derogatory and offensive towards Indian culture and women. So I asked my lawyer to send a legal notice to Netflix, requesting that they remove the episode from their platform”.
Jaya Bachchan, MP of Rayja Sabha, further emphasised Kumar’s comments, noting that the she thought actor Kunal Nayyer was insane and that his family should be asked what they think of his comments on the show. Despite some pushback from fans, failure to remove the episode on Netflix will result in Kumar filing legal action against the streaming service for promoting sexism on their platform.
The Big Bang Theory officially ended its run on CBS in 2019.
