An Indian researcher and social media user, Samanth Subramanian have slammed some Bollywood celebrities for their pretentious acts of mingling with impoverished, despondent and poor people to show themselves humble and noble to their followers.
He claimed that such acts while done on the pretext of serving humanity are part of the PR exercise and image building of the actors and actresses among people. He says several PR agencies have suggested Bollywood celebrities to run ostentatious charity campaigns to mold their image as people-friendly, humble and humanitarian.
Some PR guru has clearly been telling Bollywood's wealthy that, in a poor economy, they're seen as too elite, too out of touch. Do something that shows your ability to connect with the common man, they must have been urged. And so, with great unoriginality, they obeyed: (1)
— Samanth Subramanian (@samanth_s) November 5, 2019
The social media user pointed out that since the Bollywood celebrities are ‘ultra-rich‘ and much of the Indian population living near or below the poverty line fails to connect with them. Hence, Bollywood celebrities, vying for attention, are now eagerly looking for avenues to maximize their interaction with the poor and flash it on social media to boost their stature.
Following a typical style, Bollywood celebrities share their pictures of interacting with poor people with a heartwarming caption.
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Subramanian posted the instances of Anushka Sharma and Virat Kohli, who met up a family living up in a small village on the mountain they went for trekking. Anushka Sharma shared the picture with the family, asserted that they were warmly received by the family who did not know who they were. According to Sharma, she and her husband were known as ‘tired trekkers‘ to the family. The couple then enjoyed tea with the family.
Exhibit A: pic.twitter.com/iyjRdFOhdL
— Samanth Subramanian (@samanth_s) November 5, 2019
He then posted another picture of Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar, who took his young daughter to a broken house to meet an old couple who served them a ‘Gur wali roti‘. Kumar captioned the pic, ‘Truly, being kind costs nothing but means everything.’
Exhibit B: pic.twitter.com/bO4nALfaik
— Samanth Subramanian (@samanth_s) November 5, 2019
Anupam Kher, a veteran actor, was another celebrity whose PR activity Subramanian exposed on Twitter. According to Kher’s post, he took a few poor little girls for a meal in the restaurant, who is his morning walk friends. He treated them with a meal at a lavish restaurant and added that the girls asked about the bill of the meal.
Exhibit C: pic.twitter.com/SbCF5rM79i
— Samanth Subramanian (@samanth_s) November 5, 2019
Reacting to his tweets, several social media users cited the instance of Salman Khan, his tarnished image was immensely restored by his massive charitable acts within a decade.
It’s all PR stuff. Salman’s reputation was in tatters, PR company was involved, charities were opened and how his reputation has been turn around by PR in last decade is visible to everyone. This is true for many other stars and star kids as well
— Pasand Arora (@Pasand_Arora) November 5, 2019
Can’t be more true …. this has become so obvious that every action seems to have a propoganda attached
— sundeep kailwoo (@sundeepkailwoo) November 5, 2019