Deepika, Aamir, Farhan, Zoya: All are being managed by the same PR company

Yesterday, the entire social media went abuzz with reports of Deepika Padukone visiting the JNU for showing ostensible solidarity with the student protests. Soon, after a few images of her presence at the Central Varsity went viral, she got the kind of publicity she would have just wanted. Ideally, what deserved nothing more than a casual reference suddenly became a national issue.

In has now been revealed that the real intent behind the Bollywood actress’ controversial visit to the JNU was to indeed gain publicity for her new movie led by a PR agency that has handled other ‘woke’ personalities like Aamir Khan and Farhan Akhtar. It has come to light that Deepika Padukone is a client of Spice PR. Even her images from JNU that went viral on social media and the mainstream media yesterday were provided by this marketing communication agency. 

BBC News Punjabi also tweeted an image of Deepika Padukone from JNU and also credited Spice PR for the same, showing how her visit was nothing more than a PR stunt.

It is also relevant to mention here that the same firm had also managed Aamir Khan’s ‘intolerance remark’ when he had said that he and his wife had discussed the idea of leaving the country while expressing concern over a “sense of growing disquiet” in the country.

Another eminent client of Spice PR is Farhan Akhtar, who too was present at the anti CAA protests. However, he soon became a source of derision owing to his cluelessness about the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) against which he was protesting. His elder sister, Zoya Akhtar, who too was present at the Mumbai protest for JNU, is a client of this PR agency. No publicity is bad publicity, and therefore even after facing backlash and severe criticism, participation in the anti CAA protests does help these artists, who can hog limelight with their presence at the protests venues.

Deepika Padukone, who may be as clueless about the entire issue, as say, Farhan Akhtar, is bracing up for the release of Chhapaak, a movie that based on the story of a 2005 Acid Attack victim. It is going to release on Friday, that is, January 10. And Spice PR distributed her picture from the JNU protests on Tuesday, that is merely 3 days before the release of her movie- clearly a PR stunt for the movie that is about to release. As stated earlier, no publicity is bad publicity, her presence at JNU, though it evoked criticism and backlash on social media did help her in drawing popular attention. The PR stunt was therefore successful. It is shameful and ridiculous that such a publicity stunt was carried out for a movie based on a sensitive issue of an acid attack victim.