Operation Karaoke: Vivek Oberoi to Sonu Sood, Cobrapost stings 36 celebs

What: Cobrapost is at it again. The non-profit journalism organisation specialising in sting operations has now gone after a bunch of Bollywood celebrities. The sting, curiously codenamed “Operation Karaoke”, mainly targets actors (don’t get too excited, the Khans or the Kapoors don’t feature here) with undercover Cobrapost reporters offering them — B-listers — vast amounts of cash in exchange for a handful of posts on social media applauding — and defending — the work of certain political parties.
 
Who: Now, it’s safe to assume that a Shah Rukh Khan or a Ranbir Kapoor just did not have the time to entertain a coterie of dodgy looking journalists, so the chaps at Cobrapost had to make do with the illustrious likes of Rajpal Yadav, Vivek Oberoi, Abhijeet Bhattacharya, Mahima Chaudhry, Shreyas Talpade and rapper Baba Sehgal — 36 cinematic icons in all.

 
How: The reporters pretended to be representatives of a PR agency and got in touch with these celebrities through their respective agents. Their job was simple: put up favourable posts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and get paid in hard cash — well almost, some were even okay with a partial payment (10-20 per cent) in white.
 

The money offered ranged from anywhere between Rs 2 lakh and Rs 5 lakh for each post. Sonu Sood, however, clearly getting carried away by his own sense of macho stardom and desperate to make the most of such a proposition, quoted a starting price of a whopping Rs 20 crore for an eight-month contract. On the other hand, Bhattacharya, the Indian music industry’s anti-Pakistan mascot, gave his own inputs to make the initiative more successful, continuously emphasising how the content must look “natural” and “authentic”. An over-exuberant Yadav, who recently went to jail for defaulting on a loan worth Rs 5 crore, is even seen exclaiming: “Itne acche se defend karoonga (the Bharatiya Janata Party, in this case) ki aapki tabiyat khush ho jayegi (I will defend them so well, you will be delighted).”

 
The four celebrities who emerged unscathed — refusing to indulge in such promotional work outright — were Vidya Balan, Arshad Warsi, Raza Murad and Saumya Tandon. Warsi has one of his trademark slapstick comedies, Total Dhamaal, hitting theatres this week; and Tandon is hugely popular among audiences for her role in the Hindi TV comedy series Bhabi Ji Ghar Par Hain!. No one knows if this was a move to keep their reputation intact or just their conscience talking — either way, they made the right call.
 
Why: When asked to explain the purpose of the sting, Cobrapost released a statement saying: “The names of political parties were used, in good faith and public interest, for narrative purpose only, and this is not an insinuation of their actual involvement in the practice. The investigation was made to expose the celebs willing to endorse a political agenda in return for monetary gains.”

 
“Exposed” they definitely were, but it’s important to note that most of the celebrities who were approached for this exercise are yesteryear stars, over the hill and seemingly forgotten. In some ways, this was perhaps too good an opportunity to pass up. Moreover, most of these celebrities don’t even have much sway on social media. It’s still reasonable to expect someone like Oberoi (2.08 million followers on Twitter) to influence fans, but it’s fatuous to think that Surendra Pal, best known for his role as Dronacharya in Mahabharat, would, let alone swing public opinion, even have an Instagram account that anyone knows about.