Ashton Kutcher 'blackface' advert dropped

Hollywood star Ashton Kutcher is embroiled in a 'blackface' controversy after appearing as a Bollywood movie producer in an advert for 'Popchips'.

The online advert sees Kutcher play several different characters in a series of spoof dating videos. One is Raj, an Indian character that sees the 34-year-old actor don make-up and put on a thick accent.

[Related story: Tom Hanks in 'Blackface' controversy]

The crisp company initially defended the advert, but it has now been pulled from Popchips’ Facebook and Youtube pages, according to reports.

Popchips CEO Keith Belling issued an apology in a blog post. He said: "Our team worked hard to create a light-hearted parody featuring a variety of characters that was meant to provide a few laughs. We did not intend to offend anyone. I take full responsibility and apologise to anyone we offended."

Kutcher currently stars in the TV series 'Two And A Half Men' and is set to play Steve Jobs in a biopic about the Apple founder later in the year. His personal life has also been in the headlines recently, with reports that he is dating Mila Kunis following similar stories about Rihanna.