It’s not just P. Gopichand. Put your hands together for young Abhishek Bachchan too. While his dad guzzles colas for a fat fee (and wears 2.7 lakh shades) and doesn’t squirm with embarrassment, few know that Abhishek decided last year that he would never endorse colas. “That’s right. I will not endorse colas,” confirms Abhishek. “It’s my personal belief that what I do not drink I cannot recommend to others. I don’t drink colas, therefore, I will not ask others to drink it either. I only endorse products that I believe in.”
It’s not just commendable by itself but completely pat-worthy when you consider he lives under the same roof as his dad and practically worships the man too. In such a scenario it speaks extremely well for Abhishek to take a stand that’s in complete contrast to his dad’s. There’s Amitabh Bachchan who continues to unabashedly coax you into eating chocolates and gulp colas with the lame ruse that he needs the money to pay his debts. And there’s his son who has just had a taste of success and he’s already got his principles in place. Honestly, it’s such a shame when a cash-rich man like Amitabh Bachchan (whose MP wife’s declared income itself runs into crores) feels no twinge of guilt as he uses his star power to sell stuff which one is pretty sure he ain’t giving his grandchildren.
And Amitabh Bachchan cannot even be excused on the grounds that it didn’t strike him to keep off cola endorsements since one is confident he knows how Abhishek personally feels about doing the same thing. But then it isn’t just Amitabh Bachchan. A few months ago, there I was huffing and puffing on the treadmill in a Dubai hotel when early bird and health freak Akshay Kumar walked in with a towel around his neck. He waved away an eager trainer with the chuckle, “Perhaps I can show you a thing or two.” And then proceeded to quietly stand back and watch yours truly in action. A few minutes later, he came up and pleasantly offered a few pertinent suggestions to save the back from packing up.
Akshay Kumar sure knows everything there is to know about physical fitness and mental energy. He positively radiates robust good health. And, like Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay is a man with a social conscience. So why does that conscience pack up when he sees a lucrative endorsement contract from a cola company? Recently, Akshay said ‘no’ to a big offer from a liquor company which Ajay Devgan (of the swank Maserati fame) had no qualms accepting. Around the same time, Saif Ali Khan also turned down a gutka ad, although the actor continuously cribs about needing money to meet his large divorce settlement. Saif said ‘no’ to gutka but fried potato chips and colas are fine as long as the fee is right. Frankly, it rings so hollow when people like Amitabh Bachchan or Pataudi Junior (his mom Sharmila Tagore often talked about the “acres and acres of land we have in Bhopal”) use a money crunch as the excuse for endorsing colas.
One could completely empathise with a very young newcomer called Akshay Kumar who didn’t have the money to fill the petrol tank of his second-hand Fiat. Akshay, in those days of abject struggle, had happily picked up cigarette and cola deals without reading the fine print (reportedly, he was later aghast to discover that there was no time-clause in these contracts and the campaigns could therefore run on even when he made it as a star). His dilemma was absolutely understandable. But it’s incomprehensible when Akshay Kumar, after climbing the charts to become one of the five highest-paid stars of the film industry, stoops to crow about his new cola deal. It’s the biggest-ever fee, his PR machinery thunders. So big deal. Is that what he puts into son Aarav’s water bottle when he packs him off to school every day?
‘Anna’ Shetty or big brother Sunil Shetty is another health freak who spews wisdom and struts on his principles. But when it comes to picking up a cola contract, the businessman takes over and out goes the health guru.
Cola deals are unfortunately seen as an indicator that you’ve arrived on the celebrity circuit. It’s the snob value attached to being a cola star that has to be devalued before our celebrities stop selling the fizzy stuff.
Hey Psst !
Has rearranging her name to read ‘Bachchan Jaya Amitabh’ instead of the surname coming last done the trick for the newly-returned Rajya Sabha MP? Jaya Bachchan, oops, Bachchan Jaya, sailed back into the RS unopposed. Why was there this unholy haste in booting (only) her out in the first place? And over a piddly post like the UP Film Development Council? But since the witchhunt has begun and all three celebrity Bachchans are now being dragged under the IT scanner, perhaps father and son will rearrange their names too? Watch out for Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna starring Bachchan Amitabh and Bachchan Abhishek!
Bharathi S. Pradhan is managing editor of Movie Mag International
