On Saturday, Bollywood director Sanjay Gupta tweeted about having a bad experience at a hotel in Fort Kochi. He wrote that he experienced racism at Hotel Seagull when he was denied a table on the waterfront. Using the politically incorrect term 'goras' for white people, Sanjay claimed that "the deck on the waterfront is for goras only." His tweet further said, "They have empty tables but won’t give them to Indians claiming they’re reserved."
Got my first hand experience of absolute racism. The deck on the waterfront in this pathetic place is for goras only. They have empty tables but won’t give them to Indians claiming they’re reserved.
— Sanjay Gupta (@_SanjayGupta) January 26, 2019
Sea Gull hotel, Fort Kochi. pic.twitter.com/qXFHqKjOuY
However, the hotel management wonders how the director may have gotten this idea. "We have no such policy. The part he is referring to – tables facing the sea – is the most preferred part of the hotel. So these would usually be reserved from as early as the previous day. Anyone can reserve them. It just might happen that we have a lot of tourists visiting and they might have made reservations earlier. Even then, we try to accommodate everyone who wishes to have a table there, if possible," says Sunil, Assistant Manager of Seagull.
He adds that Sanjay Gupta had not approached anyone from the management as far as he knows, and he is not sure if the director inquired about the table with a waiter.
"There might have been a misunderstanding. If the tables were reserved and he came a few minutes before the guests who reserved it had arrived, he would have been told that. If there is at least a half hour gap before the reservation, we accommodate others after explaining the situation. We would never say it is reserved only for white people and Indians can't be seated there! We would not treat any of our guests differently," Sunil adds.
However, the Kaabil director seems to be upset still, for on Monday, he took to Twitter to post lovely photos snapped from Kerala, but added the caption, "Kerala with all it has to offer can easily be the number one tourist destination, in India. But unfortunately the guys in the tourism sector there have no clue about hospitality. Pity."