The Big Bang Theory Got In Legal Trouble Because Of A Dig At A Bollywood Actress

"The Big Bang Theory" was not exactly "Seinfeld" when it came to generating controversy with its audience. The nerd-friendly show never killed off a character who was preparing wedding invites, and its series finale didn't enrage viewers with a Sartre-esque final scene of the quartet yammering on about nothing in a prison cell. "The Big Bang Theory" was a generally nice show with some mildly unlikable characters (namely Simon Helberg's Howard Wolfowitz), and no one ever wished it had gone just a little harder.

Mithun Vijay Kumar does not agree with this assessment. The Indian activist was scandalized while watching an old episode of the series last year on Netflix and filed suit in response.

What starched Kumar's shorts? He happened to be watching the second season premiere (titled "The Bad Fish Paradigm") which features a scene where Sheldon (Jim Parsons) and Raj (Kunal Nayyar) are hanging out in the apartment watching an Indian movie featuring Bollywood star Aishwarya Rai. When Raj professes his profound love for Rai (who appeared in the Bollywood remake of "Back to the Future"), Sheldon thoughtlessly responds, "Actually, I'd say she's a poor man's Madhuri Dixit." Raj, seeing red, fires back, "Aishwarya Rai is a goddess. By comparison, Madhuri Dixit is a leprous prostitute." And the live American studio audience laughed at two geeks fighting over two women they'd never heard of.

Kumar, however, is an admirer of Dixit and was furious enough over this joke to have his lawyer send Netflix a legal notice asking that they remove the episode from their Indian streaming platform. How did that work out for him?

The most salient portion of Kumal's notice reads, "As a fan of Madhuri Dixit since childhood, I was deeply disturbed by the dialogue. I found it highly derogatory and offensive towards Indian culture and women." To be fair, it is a rough joke on the surface, but, again, it comes at the expense of two dweebs getting worked up over the comparative beauty of two Indian performers.

Kumal nevertheless pressed forward with his legal action, and he managed to get other Indian actors like Jaya Bachchan riled up as well. "Is this man [Kunal Nayyar] insane?" asked Bachchan. "Badi gandi zubaan hai [Translation: It is a very foul tongue]. He needs to be sent to mental asylum. [sic] His family should be asked what they think of his comment."

Blistering stuff! So what did Netflix do? Being that they've only paid to stream the Warner Bros.-produced show that originally aired on CBS (as have other streamers available in India, like Prime Video), Netflix acknowledged receipt and passed that legal notice along to WB. As of April 2023, WB has not, to the best of my googleable knowledge, responded. As for that foul tongue, you should see where he ended up on /Film's ranking of "The Big Bang Theory" characters by likability!