Malaysians are disappointed in Foodpanda for releasing an Indian theme advertisement but not casting any Indians as they claim it was cultural appropriation.

The titled ‘Pollywood’ ad showed a Malay family wearing Indian attire and singing and dancing to Indian music.

Malaysians were upset as they believed people with Indian backgrounds could have been cast instead of Malays.

The sentiment that the minority group tends to be kept aside was loud on social media platforms.

Sonia Singh said, “I get that they are the majority but I just wish the education system would do better.”

She added that as a north Indian, she is not represented well and feels out of place.

Sashi Kumar on Facebook shared that if Foodpanda made an ad for Hari Raya and cast Chinese, the Malays would bring up a similar issue.

He sarcastically said, “Try having a Chinese cast for Hari Raya, Indian for Chinese New Year and Malay for Christmas.”

Sashi believed that it was blatant discrimination, thoughtless and just mean.

Foodpanda released a statement that defended itself by stating the video is part of its #TakkanTakTahu campaign, in which a series of music videos reveal lesser-known features and hacks on the app.

They added that several more videos include musical inspirations include a barbershop quartet on our loyalty programme, a K-Pop rap about stacking discounts with promo code, a Bollywood performance.

-THE MALAYSIA VOICE