Genelia D’souza, now Mrs Riteish Deshmukh, is understandably livid. A building project that didn’t deliver as promised was purportedly endorsed by her. So a peeved customer has dragged her name in his legal notice against the construction people.

Genelia’s story is that she is not the brand ambassador of the construction firm and is not on the board of directors either. She had done a one-time photo ad for the company several years ago but has had no business dealings or contract with that client in recent times. So how can she be held responsible for misleading customers?

The actress has a valid point and given her enhanced political power now, the legal notice will soon be a forgotten piece of paper.

However, this is an interesting dimension to celebrity endorsements and it’s time all our famous names woke up to the fact that with big money comes big responsibility. A non-smoking health freak like Akshay Kumar may have endorsed cigarettes many moons ago when he needed money to run his old Fiat. But once his pockets were full, he turned socially aware... to a certain extent. Maybe he doesn’t do cigarette ads any more, but for someone who is so particular about what he drinks (forget aerated drinks, the man doesn’t touch alcohol either), Akshay has been merrily pocketing the big bucks to jump from cliffs and grab a bottle of cola.

Amitabh Bachchan too sold soft drinks for a couple of years but he soon got wise to the imminent rap on the knuckles he’d have got for endorsing something he himself would never recommend to kids in his personal life. He stopped doing cola ads once that contract expired. His son, Abhishek, doesn’t do them either.

But they are the exceptions because all the top three Khans endorse colas. So do all our cricketers. Rishi Kapoor who oversees all his son’s endorsements is smug that Ranbir does not do gutka, ganji, tobacco and alcohol ads, “because you can’t be a bad role model”. However, nobody has a problem with his conscience when he brazenly peddles bone and teeth decaying colas. In fact, those big buck cola endorsements are a sign that you have arrived.

“It’s the third time Ranbir’s doing the cola ad,” says Rishi with pride. “Top actors, cricketers do it all over the world, all of them endorse soft drinks.”

“In moderation everything is ok,” explains the senior actor and star dad. “I’m a drinking man; people say alcohol is not good. But I say, even if I drink too much milk, I’ll die, my liver will get screwed. Anything in moderation is okay. If you have a cold drink on a hot summer day I don’t see anything wrong with it.”

Forget about colas. Genelia’s case brings us to the responsibility a celebrity has to accept and shoulder when doing any campaign for big money. But how many give that angle of the endorsement game any thought? Hrithik Roshan and Sachin Tendulkar had endorsed something called Home Trade a few years ago. A lavish campaign on TV had gone on for a while for a product nobody quite knew anything about. The campaign and the company wound up quietly. Did Hrithik and Sachin study the credentials of the client before accepting the contract?

Does any celebrity actually satisfy himself about the reputation of a client or check the genuineness of whatever he is endorsing? Genelia’s passing predicament is an indication that tomorrow a few more lawsuits could come the way of other celebrities if they don’t watch out who or what they’re associating their names with.

Talking of reputation, Saif Ali Khan’s just took a beating with Agent Vinod borrowing all the stock clichés of James Bond, Remington Steele and Ethan Hunt (right down to snazzy suits, exotic locations in Russia, Europe and Asia and a couple of cheesy one-liners), but forgetting that a plot to thrill should come with the territory. As for the woman in his life, Kareena Kapoor just proved that she can’t do a mujra for nuts.

Years ago, Manish Malhotra would grin sheepishly when Kajol’s tummy jumped out of the lehenga she wore in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. Wonder if the popular dress designer is feeling the same way about Kareena’s flab that spills over her skirt in this mujra. From size zero to an ungainly tyre around the tummy? Perhaps it’s time for Kareena to go back to her 100 suryanamaskars a day and simultaneously lay off her favourite snack —banana chips.

Bharathi S. Pradhan is editor, The Film Street Journal