Kalyan Jewellers withdraws ad featuring Big B, daughter

Kalyan Jewellers has withdrawn their advertisement series featuring Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan, his daughter Shweta Bachchan Nanda and Malayalam actor Manju Warrier after legal action was threatened against them for portraying bank employees in a negative light.

In a media statement, Kalyan Jewellers executive director Ramesh Kalyanaraman said, "We sincerely regret the inadvertent hurt caused and withdraw the advertisement from all media with immediate effect."

He added that the advertisement has hurt sentiments of some people including members of the esteemed banking community and 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," said Kalyanaraman.

Last week, Senior Bachchan had tweeted the video of the ad which marked Shweta's screen debut, writing, "Emotional moment for me .. tears welling up every time I see it .. daughters are the BEST !"

In the commercial, Amitabh visits a bank with his daughter to return the extra amount of pension received by him, however, he is met with unprofessional and non-cooperative employees, who suggest him to keep the additional amount.

The advertisement series caused huge outrage among the banking community across the country, which accused Kalyan Jewellers of creating a distrust among the public about the banking system .