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Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt’s life has been very colourful. The actor has always managed to grab eyeballs, but on most occasions, they are mostly for all the wrong reasons. In the last few days, Dutt is receiving flak for an old commercial thanks to his extremely insensitive rant on metro-sexual men. A clip of the actor from Haywards 5000 ad from 2008 has gone viral on social media. And netizens didn’t waste any time in calling out Dutt’s blatant celebration of toxic masculinity.

In the viral clip from an old ad, Sanjay is ranting about metro-sexual men and how they are posing as a threat to real “mardangi”. Sanjay goes on to say how men are walking around with long hair, waxed legs, and shaved chest. The actor is heard saying, “Men today are spending more times in beauty parlour than gyms where they belong. They want to cook, look after babies. Get their hair permed and their face steamed. They want to feel like behenjis…wear clothes like behenjis, put on lotions and creams like behenjis. They even choose colours that are feminine.”

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In his monologue, he then goes on to bash the men for wearing colours like pink and purple or do anything that’s considered to be feminine. Stating that men should be ‘manly’ and not ‘girly’, Dutt adds that men must grow beards, wear scruffy jeans and dance Bhangra instead of learning salsa. “Bharat ke mardon, we are in danger. Let’s not have anything to do with facial and lip gloss, and hand creams, and counting calories, and flowery perfumes… or flowery anything. This is the new kranti (revolution) I want to start for men…it’s called Mardangiri (Manliness),” he concludes.

Apparently, this ad was taken down back then. But now that it has resurfaced again on social media, netizens have not only slammed Dutt for featuring in this misogynistic ad, but also expressed their bewilderment at how such a problematic ad was made in the first place.

Some even wondered why Sanjay Dutt even said yes to such a script. While some users defended the actor saying that he just did what he was asked to do. But how can an actor of his stature mouth these lines which reek of toxic masculinity and homophobia?

Interestingly, according to a report in Deccan Chronicle, the director of this ad, Jerrit G. John, was arrested in 2012 for having thrown acid at his then-girlfriend. We wonder what Sanjay has to say about giving a green signal to such an ad.

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