Bollywood superstar trio SRK, Akshay Kumar and Ajay Devgn have been reportedly served notices after appearing in a controversial Vimal ad.
The central government was responding to a contempt petition filed by Advocate Motilal Yadav against the three actors. According to him, despite being Padma awardees, they have endorsed harmful habits like tobacco chewing, which are harmful to the public at large. This in relation to their involvement in ads for “gutka” companies.
Show cause notices were issued to actors Shah Rukh Khan, Akshay Kumar and Ajay Devgn on October 20. However, despite the petition being filed on October 22, no action followed, which seems to have led to the contempt petition.
The court was also informed that Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan had sent a legal notice to a ‘gutka’ company, which had been showing his advertisement despite him cancelling his contrast with them, according to PTI news agency.
A few months ago, the actors landed on controversial waters after the airing of the Vimal ad. Akshay Kumar received singular flak since he famously apologized to his fans last year, vowing to stop endorsing the brand.
After netizens lashed out on him on X (formerly Twitter), the actor took to social media to fact-check. “These ads were shot on 13th October, 2021. I have not had anything to do with the brand ever since I publicly announced the discontinuation of the endorsement. They can legally run the already shot ads till the end of next month,” he wrote.
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