Kalyan Jewellers withdraws ad starring Big B & daughter Shweta

A leading jewellery chain today withdrew a one-and-a-half minute long advertisement featuring bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan and his daughter after it came under attack from a bank union which said it was aimed at creating ‘distrust’ in the banking system.

“We sincerely regret the inadvertent hurt caused and withdraw the advertisement from all media with immediate effect,” Executive Director of Kalyan Jewellers, Ramesh Kalyanaraman said in a statement, reports The New Indian Express.

He said, “we understand that the advertisement has hurt sentiments of some people including members of our esteemed banking community. Any such hurtful interpretation being drawn is unintended.”

“We state that the creative advertisement was a work of fiction and not a reflection of banking employees at large.

Along with crores of Indians, we acknowledge the valuable contribution of the banking community to our country,” the statement went on to say.

The advertisement features Amitabh as an old man and Shweta Bachchan Nanda as his daughter.

In the advert, Amitabh depicted as a person with integrity and honesty, is seen visiting a bank branch along with his daughter to return the extra money credited in his pension account and his bitter encounter with bank employees in the process.

AIBOC general secretary Soumya Datta had alleged that the theme, tone and tenor of the advert was “disgusting, derogatory, to say the least and is aimed to create distrust in the banking system, for pure commercial gain.”

However, Kalyan Jewellers had rejected the allegation, saying it was “pure fiction.”

Demanding an unconditional apology from the jewellery group, the AIBOC had said if the advertisement was not withdrawn, suitable “organisational action, including dharnas and litigation” would be initiated.

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