Hardik Pandya and K.L. Rahul appeared as guests on the latest episode of Koffee With Karan in what was the show's first attempt at featuring only sportspeople.
Unlike the Bollywood stars who usually appear on the show and are trained to handle such interviews, the two cricketers spoke about their dating and sex lives with no filter.
The questions and answers kept circling back to their multiple affairs and how they had been intimate with fans, cheerleaders and, seemingly, any woman they laid eyes on.
Hardik Pandya especially talked about sex and women like they were conquests to be shown off with pride.
And viewers were *not* happy at the blatant sexism and misogyny on display.
The episode was berated by multiple people for its disrespectful and chauvinistic attitude.
3) KJo: If y'all hit on the same women, then how you decide? KL Rahul: "Ya upto the woman." Hardik Pandya: "Nahi nahi aisa kuch nahi hai, talent pe hota hai. Jiso mila woh leke jao." So much respect for women woww, just banter cool cool cool cool cool
Pandya, in particular, got mentioned in a lot of tweets about his entitled behaviour towards women and the people around him.
Hardik Pandya is an obnoxious, sexist asshole, who’s attracted to “black” culture and looks at the opposite sex as one big scoring ground. How does it matter if he picked Sachin over Virat! There are bigger worries, like how the idiot spanks his teammates in the locker room! 🤦🏼♂️
It might have been fun initially to watch two young sportsmen letting their guards down, but the obnoxious and misogynist attitude of #HardikPandya just was too much to take in. At one time, cricket was called a gentleman's sport. Where has all the class gone? #KoffeeWithKaran
In addition, Pandya was chided for appropriating black culture in one of his answers.
"I like to watch & observe how women move. I'm little from the Black side so I need to see how they move," #HardikPandya Dude, first of all that's racist cuz you just threw a shade at my Black brothers & sisters. Second of all, you are a maha tharki #KoffeeWithKaran
BuzzFeed was also called out for glossing over the problematic nature of the chat in its coverage of the episode.
7) As an online publication, if you're covering this episode, pls don't write '10 hilarious bromance moments from Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul's KWK epi'. Pls don't normalise this behaviour as locker room banter if you identify as a feminist platform. I'm begging you!
The post has since been edited to add viewers' reactions to the sexism prevalent in the interview.
Pandya and Rahul are currently in Australia as part of the Indian cricket team and are yet to respond to the reactions.
Watching Koffee with Karan (or however you spell it) with Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul and the toxic masculinity and racism egged on by Karan Johar’s giggles are the reason why Indian men are encouraged to unapologetically misogynistic. Unfortunate!