"King the Land" Faces Criticism for Misrepresentation of Arab Prince

The JTBC K-drama King the Land, which has been topping Netflix charts, has come under fire for its misrepresentation of Arab Royalty and culture. 

On July 8th, the drama aired its 7th episode, in which the Indian actor Anupam Tripathi played the character of an Arab Prince, Prince Samir.

In episode 7, Gu Won (Lee Jun Ho) tries to bring Prince Samir to his hotel in order to prevent him from going to First Royal Hotel. He makes a phone to the Prince, who happens to have an acquaintance with him. The Prince agrees to stay at King Hotel after agreeing to a contract with Gu Won. While the playful banter between Gu Won and Prince Samir, amused many, the K-drama also received criticism for its inappropriate representation of Arab royalty. 

The drama showed the character of the Arab Prince drinking in a bar, surrounded by women. This portrayal sparked massive criticism from netizens who believed the show has disrespected Arabs and their culture. 

Arab netizens are expressing their anger and disappointment on social media saying that Arab Princes "don't drink nor go to bars nor touch women". 

The netizens are demanding an apology from JTBC, and many have even dropped the show, following the episode. 

While JTBC has not issued any official statement, the criticism continues to mount with people leaving negative comments on social media posts of King the Land, actor Anupam Tripathi's Instagram, all while #JTBCAPOLOGIZE and #KdramaOffendsTheArabs circulate Twitter. 

The production team of JTBC drama King the Land has responded to the controversy surrounding the distortion of Arab culture.

The released statement is as follows:

"The characters, locations, and names depicted in the drama are all fictitious settings. The character [in question] is not portrayed as a prince of any specific country". They also emphasized that there was no intention to exaggerate or distort any specific culture.