Yes, Sunny Pawar From ‘Lion’ Is Adorable, but Why Was Everyone Picking Him Up Like a Toy?

At Sunday night’s Academy Awards, it became pretty clear that there’s a hot new accessory in Hollywood: 8-year-old Sunny Pawar. The adorable child actor from the acclaimed movie Lion made the rounds both on the red carpet and off, and even nabbed an unofficial starring role during one of Jimmy Kimmel’s bits. In fact, it seemed like the kid couldn’t walk two feet without some other celebrity sweeping in and picking him up.

Dev Patel, who co-starred with Pawar in Lion, couldn’t help but pick up Pawar, as evidenced by a snapshot of them from the Weinstein Company’s pre-Oscars dinner. Patel hoisted Pawar onto his hip and looked completely starstruck by the small thespian. While Pawar looked totally comfy in his co-star’s arms, he looked a little less so when Jerry O’Connell scooped him up.

On the arrivals carpet, correspondent Jerry O’Connell coerced Pawar into getting onto his shoulders to get a better view of the scene. After greeting the tyke, O’Connell asked if he could actually see what was going on. Before Pawar was able to answer, O’Connell asked if he wanted to get onto his shoulders. Pawar looked at his dad (probably to see what he thought of this suggestion), but before his dad could reply, O’Connell just decided to do it. O’Connell then announced to everyone who was listening (which was no one) that this was the star of Lion and Lion was “winning tonight.” He even added a fist bump for effect.

Later, Jimmy Kimmel took a page from O’Connell and began bantering with Pawar in front of the star-studded audience. After reminding everyone that Pawar was in Lion, the host asked the child if he had ever seen The Lion King. (Apparently the connection was the word “lion” in the titles.) After Pawar said he had seen the 1994 Disney flick and confirmed that he liked it, Kimmel asked if he “wanted to do the thing where the lion king lifts the kid up in the air.” Pawar said “yes,” and Kimmel lifted him up to create the famous pose of Rafiki presenting Simba while the soundtrack filled the auditorium.

While it was a hit with the crowd present, users on social media weren’t so sure about the move. “Yeah. let’s lift the ethnic kid to the Lion King music. oh boy Jimmy,” one user tweeted.

Another added, “Yeah…that whole picking up the little brown boy with the Lion King theme music thing was kinda racist. Actually, not kinda. Definitely.”

It’s hard to imagine that anyone picked Pawar up for any reason other than he is the cutest kid ever, but it’s also not hard to see how some viewers might not appreciate the whole “pretending the kid is a lion cub” thing. Regardless, it’s pretty safe to say that at some point, Pawar won’t be 8 years old anymore and this whole trend will come to a natural, necessary end.

More from Yahoo Celebrity:

• 8 Things You Didn’t See at the Oscars 2017

• Jimmy Kimmel’s Prank Forces Hollywood Stars to Mingle With Nonfamous Folk

• Social Snaps — Oscars 2017 Edition (Photos)