IT’S MY CHOICE: Celebrities such as Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, M.S. Dhoni and Amitabh Bachchan usually lend their names to high-end products while some like Govinda aren’t so lucky

If you are a late night television junkie, you may have spotted a voluptuous starlet holding forth on the miraculous effects of a dietary supplement in fighting sexual problems. Kashmira Shah — in a short black and green dress with a plunging neckline — holds up a bottle of Power Prash as an answer to erectile dysfunctioning.

Those who have tried out chyavanprash — an ayurvedic mix that promises health, promoted, among others, by celebrities Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, M.S. Dhoni and Sourav Ganguly — would be tempted to try out the new prash in the market. And it’s not the only herbal magic potion being advertised on TV. Other such products, all suffixed with the word prash, are being tom-tommed by sexy starlets. Shakti Prash, for instance, has wannabe stars Veena Malik and Payal Rohtagi interviewing those who have supposedly benefited from it. Wives, in the paid ad, speak about their husbands who have turned into sexual forces.

Like millions of viewers, Mahesh Zagade was idly surfing television channels late one evening when he came across an ad being promoted by an actor. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner of Maharashtra sat up — for he was convinced it flouted the law. He ended up issuing notices to 65 newspapers and four news channels. “I asked 77 police stations from Dahisar to Colaba to register complaints against them,” he says.

And that is one reason actor Govinda finds himself in trouble. He was among those who received a notice from the FDA two months ago for seeking to promote an ayurvedic oil that promised to cure all aches and pains. The former top star wrote a letter to the FDA two weeks ago, seeking clarifications.

The FDA has also sent notices to police stations in Mumbai asking them to register an FIR against the actor under the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1955. The product that Govinda sought to uphold — Sandhi Sudha Plus — was aired on a teleshopping spot. The advertisement had earlier featured actors Jackie Shroff and Alok Nath.

Clearly, actors who promote and endorse a company for a fee can land in trouble if the products are found to be dubious. The Mumbai police stations are yet to register a formal complaint, but if they do, celebs who back health-related products can be punished. Violation of the Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1955, could result in six months’ imprisonment, a fine or both, for the first conviction.

Kashmira Shah, for one, says she has learnt her lesson. “I am an actor and am not an expert, but I will have a lawyer by my side the next time I do an ad. When somebody approaches me with a product, I normally think that it must be good as it is going on TV, but that clearly is not the case,” she says.

Today many are asking questions on how responsible a star is when it comes to endorsements, a Rs 1,500-crore industry in India. The top ones — from Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Katrina Kaif to Ranbir Kapoor and Shah Rukh Khan — usually lend their names to high-end products. But many others — especially those past their prime or those still to find fame — have been promoting dubious products and schemes. And the government is taking notice.

It’s not just an issue of health. There have been numerous cases of people losing money after being wooed by stars promoting a financial scheme. In Tamil Nadu, the police are probing complaints against actors Sarath Kumar and Satyaraj for appearing in ads for an emu farm. The ads urged people to invest in emu farming, but the scheme — to rear emu for their lean meat — ended up as a dead duck when it failed to yield profits.

In Andhra Pradesh, a Hyderabad court earlier this year directed the police to file a case against actor Genelia D’Souza for promoting a real estate firm which had been accused of cheating. Buyers claimed they had been influenced after seeing D’Souza’s campaign. D’Souza, however, said it was a “one-off” shoot done six years ago.

The actors stress they are not the culprits. Govinda, for instance, is believed to have told the FDA that he was unaware of the effects of the products as he was neither its manufacturer nor a distributor. “He said he was only acting,” an FDA official says.

On the other hand, the actors know they are role models and are often followed blindly by their fans. Delhi-based salesman Ajit Kumar says he bought Sandhi Sudha after seeing Govinda’s teleshopping programme. “Everything looks so real — the people, the conversation. But Sandhi Sudha made no difference to my arthritic mother. When I asked them to return my money as promised in the programme, they never got back to me. People like Govinda are cheating people in broad daylight,” Kumar says.

LOOK BEFORE YOU SIGN: Nargis Fakri and Dia Mirza

Since these products are shipped directly after a phone call, they bypass stringent procedures such as selling licences and proper stocking stores. “The firms selling these products are very smart. When we issued notices to one channel, it stopped advertising there and went on to some other channel. But we never stopped chasing them,” Zagade says.

Zagade and his team, however, might be just scratching the surface. Hordes of products, some claiming to make you taller by a couple of inches, others promising magical cures, are being endorsed by celebrities. The endorsements translate into mega bucks. Industry insiders say Govinda and Shroff are paid Rs 20-50 lakh for such campaigns, while lesser known actors are paid Rs 10-20 lakh.

According to figures for September 2011 released by TAM AdEx, that tracks TV advertising, six per cent of the ads featured Katrina Kaif and Shah Rukh Khan; M.S. Dhoni followed with 5 per cent; while Kareena Kapoor, Sachin Tendulkar and Amitabh Bachchan figured in 4 per cent of them.

Sportspersons too are much sought after. Some 21 per cent of celebrities on TV in the first half of 2011 were sports people, say TAM reports.

So should actors be more responsible when signing contracts for such products? “I don’t think the celebrity should be held responsible. Also, in this day and age consumers should be smart enough to read labels and do their own research,” actor Nargis Fakhri argues.

Ambi Parmeshwaran, executive director and CEO, FCB Ulka, agrees. If a product fails, the marketer is responsible, he holds. “As far as the celebrity is concerned, the biggest setback for him is his credibility. If people stop believing in you, that is punishment enough.”

Actor Dia Mirza says she allows her instincts to guide her. “I know instinctively and courtesy a sense of general awareness whether a product is largely good for the end consumer...,” she says. In fact, Mirza — ambassador for Panasonic, The Body Shop and Cera — claims she uses all the products she endorses. Fakhri adds that if she ever endorses a herbal product, she is going to ask “many questions beforehand” and even try it out first.

Advertising agencies are not very happy about the fracas. “No product can sell in the long term if it does not meet people’s expectations. The market is the final jury on whatever claim the product is making. Having said that, we have the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) where affected consumers can lodge complaints,” Parmeshwaran says.

According to ASCI, it received 3,000-odd complaints about TV advertisements this year and asked for 200 ads to be taken off the air. “Of these, 8-10 per cent related to telemarketing products,” points out ASCI secretary general Alan Collaco. Collaco points out that the companies get in touch with the smaller stars directly to endorse their products. “These are very small companies which just want a face for their products.”

Of course, that doesn’t mean that the stars are small. Even top actors such as Hrithik Roshan and SRK and ace batsman Sachin Tendulkar have let their fans down. It is estimated that the stars were paid around Rs 5 crore each for endorsing Home Trade, a financial services portal in 2000. The company went bust within a year.

When a star backs a product or a company, the impact is immense. Home Trade, for instance, became a talking point. “People started asking what the company was doing. The awareness about Home Trade was because of the stars,” says ad guru Prahlad Kakkar, who believes that the big stars are more careful after the Home Trade fiasco. “These days stars always have a lawyer with them before they sign on the dotted line.”

But most actors are not greatly bothered about what they endorse. “Some don’t mind appearing in ads ranging from a banian to hawai chappals and everything in between. On the other hand, people like Ranbir Kapoor are very, very selective,” says Anirban Das Blah, managing director of KWAN Entertainment & Marketing, a company that represents several top stars, including Kapoor and Deepika Padukone. According to Blah, Kapoor has rejected 51 advertising offers and accepted only six. “There is very little chance of people like him getting it wrong,” he says.

Kakkar, however, asserts that stars — big or small — could be duped into endorsing products in the future too despite all the precautions. “There are enough crooks out there and they will devise new ways to entice the stars and the consumers. But at the end of the day, the consumer will decide the fate of the product, not the star,” he adds.

The moral of the story? An ad is an ad — take it with a pinch of salt. And remember the one extolling the virtues of a product has been paid to do so.

Boom to bust

Celebs and campaigns going wrong

2000: Hrithik Roshan, Sachin Tendulkar, Shah Rukh Khan and Priyanka Chopra were involved in a high voltage campaign for Home Trade, a finance portal. The business turned out to be a Rs 300-crore scam.

2007: Amitabh Bachchan endorsed the Samajwadi Party-led Uttar Pradesh government’s claim that the state was low in crime. The SP was drubbed in the state Assembly elections.

2008: Genelia D’Souza endorsed Anjaniputra Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd, a real estate company. The company allegedly collected Rs 250 crore from buyers but failed to hand over the properties.

2012: Tamil actors Sarath Kumar and Sathyaraj endorsed Susi Emu Farms India Private Ltd which went bust. Investors lost Rs 300 crore.

Additional reporting by Shabina Akhtar