Traders besiege actor's office, stage protest against Mandee

The office of popular film actor Vijay Sethupathi, who is the brand ambassador of Mandee, a mobile app of food commodity service provider, was on Tuesday besieged by 150-200 traders demanding him to stop endorsing Mandee as they said it was affecting their business.

The traders staged a protest in front of the actor's office here and raised slogans against him and the company.

The traders holding placards protested against him by claiming that Mandee would affect the livelihood of small traders.

The actor was not in his office and was out of station for a film-shoot, sources said.

Police detained the protestors and later let them off.

Meanwhile in a statement, Mandee said it connects all stakeholders in food commodity business through a technology-enabled platform and aims to provide increase demand for sellers and provide access to more options, quality and convenience to buyers.

"The platform is focused only on business to business trading and not direct to household," the statement said.

"We request the patrons of the industry to understand the initiative and extend their support for the welfare of the industry and community", it said.

Mandee denied the allegations levelled against the company and the actor.

The Mandee website and the mobile application were launched after taking up research for the benefit of the industry after interacting with farmers, manufacturers, distributors, dealers and retailers.

On the appointment of actor Vijay Sethupathi as its brand ambassador, the company said he accepted to endorse the brand only after studying the brand, business model and service.

"Only when he was convinced that Mandee is for the real benefit for traders and farmers, people coming from trading background, did he decide to engage with Mandee", the statement said.

The company said its vision was to lead food commerce into next generation through the innovative business model, technology and operations.