BBC mixes up Indian actors in obituary on News at Ten
THE BBC has landed itself in a new racism row after it used two clips of the wrong actor in a BBC News at Ten obituary of a Bollywood star.
The actor Shashi Kapoor, 79, died on Monday but the BBC tribute mistakenly used footage of Amitabh Bachchan and Rishi Kapoor, his nephew, who is 65.
It comes days after Woman’s Hour mixed up a Japanese doctor and a Vietnamese filmmaker in an episode listeners described as a “car crash”. There was a similar backlash to the BBC News at Ten mix-up, which viewers de- scribed as “shocking”.
Adil Ray, the actor, said: “Someone at the BBC thought the brown person in this VT is the same person. Worse still neither of them are the deceased actor Huw [Edwards, the presenter] refers to. It’s poor when it would have taken them seconds to verify. Not enough care.” Media Diversified, which campaigns for black and minority ethnic representa- tion in the media, also posted on Twitter: “Hang on @bbcnews Shashi Kapoor has died, not Amitabh Bachchan or Rishi Kapoor, who you’ve weirdly used to illustrate the story.”
Paul Royall, the programme’s editor, apologised, saying he was “very sorry wrong images were used. Not our usual standards”. Shashi Kapoor appeared in more than 100 films, and died in hospital in Mumbai, India, early on Dec 4.