JOIN USRapido ad lands Telugu actor Allu Arjun in the soup, Telangana RTC claims public transport shown in poor light
Popular Telugu actor Allu Arjun seems to have landed himself in trouble over an ad he did for Rapido, a bike taxi app.
Telangana State Road Transport Corporation Managing Director VC Sajjanar said that they have served legal notices to Allu and Rapido for showing the public transport service in poor light to promote their business.
In the ad, Allu, in the character of a small town food kiosk operator, tells a customer that commuters boarding a RTC bus are squashed like the fillings of a masala-dosa by the time they deboard.
“I have received several complaints from our patrons about the ad's objectionable content. While businesses can project their services as good, demeaning others, especially a government organization in the service of the public for decades, is highly offensive,” Sajjanar told DH on Wednesday.
The senior IPS officer appealed to celebrities to first evaluate the message they would be sending to the public before doing such ads.
“Such big stars have the power to influence public opinion. They should not say something, portray anything for the sake of money,” the former Cyberabad police commissioner said.
The top cop has a reason to be displeased with Allu's ad as since taking over as MD in August, Sajjanar has been initiating actions and reforms to push the TSRTC bus out of losses. His office twitter handle is abuzz with activity, promptly responding to people's problems, requests, while Sajjanar is commuting by TSRTC buses, going for meetings, inspections at various depots in Telangana.
When pointed out that the RTC bus and the location shown in the ad is related to neighboring Andhra Pradesh, Sajjanar said the vehicle is of TSRTC's Hyderabad Central University depot which was hired for a day in September for the shoot.
“To use our RTC bus to denigrate our service is even more appalling. For that matter, to belittle any state transport system is not right. Not just Telangana, all state transport corporations are doing a great service to the public. Since the days when no other means were available especially in remote locations to today, millions of people – working classes, students, women – use RTC as their main mode of transport,” Sajjanar said.
The contentious Rapido ad has garnered over 1.2 million views on YouTube in the last five days. The notices were also served to YouTube stating the advertisement's defamatory nature.
“We hope they will respond to our notices and withdraw the ad. If not, we will proceed legally in the court,” Sajjanar said.
The controversy comes at a time when Allu's multilingual movie Pushpa is slated for release next month. The actor is said to be playing the role of a red sanders smuggler in the two-part film.
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