Serial Misogynist Kartik Aryan Thinks Women Should be Punished For Making Bad Rotis

Once a misogynist, always a misogynist. In his latest video, Bollywood actor Karthik Aaryan proved just that.

With men and women holed in at home for extended periods of time together due to the coronavirus lockdown, a conversation about gender roles was inevitable. Just as inevitable, perhaps, was the potential threat of increased domestic abuse and gender-based violence. In fact, several women's rights organisations such as the National Commission for Women (NCW) have openly stated that calls made to domestic abuse helplines have increased since lockdown.

But none of that seems to have reached Kartik, who seems to be making a habit out of propagating casual misogyny.

Known to post short TikTok-style clips on his Instagram account to keep his fan base engaged, Kartik uploaded a "funny" video on his Instagram profile on Sunday. The video featured Kartik along with his sister Kritika Tiwari who together play out a skit which can best be described as domestic violence.

Didn't think domestic violence could be funny? Here's Kartik, proving that wrong in a post captioned "No compromise on quality".

In the video, Kartik begins with eating a roti, the taste of which displeases him. The camera pans to his sister in pigtails holding a 'bellun' to mark her as the cook of the disastrous roti. Kartik then goes on to comically "punish" her for the bad cooking by yanking at her pigtails and spinning her out of the room. A few seconds of inane camerawork later, the girl can be seen falling off the balcony with a smirking Kartik breaking the third wall with the bellun in hand. Lesson? Making bad rotis is punishable by death. Now here's something to consider. Since the beginning of the lockdown on March 21, cases of domestic violence have been on the rise. The NCW has already registered 861 cases of domestic violence this year. But hey, creative license. This is the same man who played the docile albeit sexist 'nice guy' who just happened to hate women because they were mean to him in endless clickbaity "rom-coms" starting from his infamous "Punchnama" series or the more latest "Pati Patni aur Woh" travesty. Kartik is also unabashed. In an interview following outrage against his woman-hating antics from some his latest work, Kartik said he did not mind being judged as a misogynist. So very kind. The roti video has nonetheless garnered some nasty comments online. Most of them from tired feminists probably aching to scratch their eyes out and throw it at Kartik for the horrible joke.

The actor must have thought this is just a joke. Much like Kabir Singh was only a film. Domestic violence, after all, is invisible in a country like India where wife beating is an open secret and often a measure of manhood.

It's also not surprising that almost none of Kartik's industry friends on Instagram including actor Varun Dhawan and "woke" 'gramers like Dolly Singh chose to ignore the stark misogyny. It's just a joke, after all.

Someone needs to tell this actor that domestic violence isn't a joke. Perhaps, with a belan in hand. Should we yell from the balcony?