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Bengaluru based edtech startup Byju's has temporarily taken down its ads featuring Shah Rukh Khan, according to a report by Economic Times. This decision comes amid growing criticism for the company after the actor's son Aryan Khan was arrested in a drugs-related case last week.
Shah Rukh Khan represents a lot of other brands like Hyundai, BigBasket, and Dubai Tourism, among others, but Byju's is gaining the most criticism. A lot of users on social media sites, especially Twitter, have called out Byju's for having Shah Rukh Khan as their ambassador, leading to the ads being pulled even after advance bookings have been done.
Khan has been representing the company since 2017, and according to Economic Times, the actor earns about 3-4 crores per year from the deal.
Byju's had apparently started a new ad campaign with the actor only three weeks ago.
“For Byju’s, they had planned for IPL ads too and now there is a discomfort around that as the tournament moves to its next stage. It’s not clear if they will be able to pull out of all IPL promotions,” another source told Economic Times.
Online grocery company BigBasket has refused to comment on the issue. A spokesperson said, "BigBasket will not like to validate, deny or comment anything on this."
Aryan Khan, along with Munmun Dhamecha and Arbaaz Merchant, was denied bail yesterday in the cruise ship drugs case, since their application was not maintainable.
(With inputs from Economic Times).
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