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After Green TV Entertainment received criticism for their latest Ramazan show Ishq Di Chashni’s portrayal of an actor with dwarfism, the channel has removed certain scenes featuring the character. However, there are still scenes infantilising the actor present in the show.

Ishq Di Chashni follows the love story of two passionate chefs in a classic enemies-to-lovers trope. In the show, Khushhal Khan’s character Sherry has a best friend named Rasgullah who lives with him.

After the first episode aired, social media users called out the treatment of Rasgullah on the show. The episode showed Sherry twirling Rasgullah around in his arms and then seating him in his lap, while animatedly holding Rasgullah’s arms and using them in a bid to show funny gestures.

The actor who plays Rasgullah is uncredited in the cast list despite being in many scenes, and his name is not easily available through an internet search.

Content creator Nadia Rehman Butt, in a video posted to Instagram, said the actor’s treatment was very disrespectful. “What, he’s a doll or a teddy bear? He’s a human, for heaven’s sake!” she said.

“The dwarf artist has no dialogues, and other actors aren’t even looking at him, as if he’s not even a human,” she said. While the actor did not have many lines in the first episode, he was given some minor dialogues in the subsequent episodes.

“It’s 2025, it’s all about inclusion of all human beings, then why are we using dwarfs for mocking purposes? As it is, these people get bullied for no reason and through this drama we’re encouraging our younger generation that it’s okay to treat them disrespectfully?” Butt asked in her caption.

Butt’s video was flooded with comments agreeing with her take.

‘Demeaning and disrespectful’

X (formerly Twitter) users also criticised the actor’s treatment in the show, with many questioning why he was treated as a “toy” or “prop”.

A netizen highlighted that turning dwarfism into a joke was “an outdated trope” and the show had “one of the most disrespectful portrayals for both the audience and the actor”.

Another X user questioned how the scene of Khan carrying an adult man like a prop was funny. “Stop using people’s appearance as your laughing stock. My heart goes out for that poor man, it’s disturbing and very insensitive.”

An individual questioned, “Why are they handling a grown man as a kid? So uneasy and so cringe and unnecessary.” They urged the show’s makers to hire a child actor if they wanted to use an actor with dwarfism as a child.

Another social media user praised the acting in the drama but said the treatment of the actor with dwarfism was not okay. “He’s a grown man sitting on Khushhal Khan’s lap and being swung around? Stop treating people with dwarfism as props.”

Green TV removes the scene

After the onslaught of criticism, Green TV Entertainment removed the scene of Khan swinging the actor around from the first episode of the show.

The move was appreciated by netizens, who lauded the team for “taking feedback and implementing it.”

Despite the scene’s removal, other moments from the show that infantilise the actor and use him as a prop for humour remain in the show.

Within the first episode, after Sehar Khan’s character bumps into Rasgullah with a trolley, she immediately assumes she has hit a child, even though the man has a moustache. Soon after Sherry comes to his rescue and hands him a lollipop before instructing him to hold his fingers as they exit the store.

Scenes such as this reinforce harmful stereotypes and reduce the actor to their dwarfism, making them a comedic device rather than a person.