After coming under fire for its latest ad featuring Hrithik Roshan, food delivery platform Zomato has issued an apology for hurting people’s feelings.

“We offer our most sincere apologies, as the intent here was never to hurt anyone’s beliefs and feelings,” the company said in a Twitter post.

Zomato’s statement comes after priests and devotees of the Shree Mahakaleshwar temple in Ujjain demanded the immediate removal of the peculiar advertisement in which Hrithik was seen ordering food from ‘Mahakal’ when he had want to have a “thali”.

“Mahakal Temple does not deliver any thali. Zomato and Hrithik Roshan must apologize for this publicity,” Priest Mahesh Sharma said.

“The company misrepresented the Mahakal Temple in its advertisement. The company should think carefully before publishing such advertisements,” Sharma said, adding that the advertisement hurt religious feelings.

The priests’ outrage over the publicity caused Zomato to apologize for the same.

In its statement, the company said the ad “referred to ‘thalis’ at ‘Mahakal Restaurant’ and not the revered Shree Mahakaleshwar Temple”.

“The video is part of a pan-Indian campaign for which we have identified the best local restaurants and their best dishes based on popularity in each city. Mahakal Restaurant was one of the restaurants chosen for the campaign in Ujjain We deeply respect the feelings of Ujjain’s and the ad in question is no longer running. We sincerely apologize for the intent here was never to hurt anyone’s beliefs and feelings. Either,” the statement concluded.

The Mahakal temple of Lord Shiva in Ujjain is one of the 12 Jyotirlingas.

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