Kalyan jewellers withdraws controversial ad starring Bachchan

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 here.

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."
AIBOC general secretary Soumya Datta had alleged that the theme, tone and tenor of the Ad were "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."
Bachchan had tweeted the video of the ad, saying "Emotional moment for me.. tears welling up every time I see it.. daughters are the best !!"
But, Mr Bachchan perhaps was unaware that in the process of doing so on screen, he has made a mockery of the entire bankers' community in the ad which is deplorable and culpable."
Datta had said "we express our strong resentment against the management of Kalyan Jewellers and Mr Bachchan who have manifested a negative and false image of the Banks in the ad for their personal aggrandisement."