That 'leaked' video was a social experiment, says Ali Rehman Khan
It was evident that there is more to the story of Ali Rehman Khan losing his temper at a McDonald's cashier.
When a video of the actor yelling tacky lines like, "Aapko pata hai main kaun hoon? Aapne kabhi mujhe TV pe dekha hai? Aap employee hain, aapka kaam hai meri baat maanna." ("Do you know who I am? Have you ever seen me on TV? You are an employee, your job is to do as I say."), people were quick to call him out for his behaviour, while many wondered if it was staged.
Turns out it was, as Khan took to Twitter to reveal the whole thing to be staged and 'leaked' on purpose, with the staffers at the fast food chain in on it the whole time.
"We uploaded this video to make it viral and it worked," said the Parchi actor. "I got bashed for it and rightfully so."
"I just wanted to let you guys know that this was a social experiment, the aim was to raise awareness on #TumJaanteHoMaiKonHun culture. The disparity between the rich and poor is immense in our country and the so called VIP culture doesn't do anything to help it. That is what I wanted to raise my voice against."
Khan does not mind the vitriol he was met with as he hoped this would be the reaction.
"I'm really happy to see that you all raised your voice against it as well and spoke up. That you guys highlighted the issue."
He added, "I just want to say that while we do raise our voices on Twitter and social media platforms, we don't really do anything later. When you see a video like this which is jarring and uncomfortable to watch, you must know that stuff like this happens in our society and we must take action along with raising our voices. We need to teach our children about doing the right thing. I'm actually happy at the response."
According to Khan, there's more to come in relation to this movement, "but until then let's unite and focus on the message and not on the messenger."
McDonald's vouched for the actor, sharing a blooper clip of the video as well to prove the content was indeed staged.
We called it when the original video went viral but at the same time it's still difficult to imagine what the teachable moment is here. Instead of staging it in such a manner it could've been portrayed in so many different ways. A simple sketch would do as well.