Daijiworld Media Network
Mangaluru, Feb 19: A sting operation titled ‘Operation Karaoke’ conducted by Cobrapost has exposed over 35 Bollywood celebrities who were willing to promote political parties ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in exchange of cash.
Cobrapost created a fictitious PR agency and approached directors, actors, singers, stand-up comedians and dancers with a question, “Would you be willing to promote a political party discreetly on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram?”
The following celebrities agreed and quoted a fee. Among the noted playback singers was Abhijeet Bhattacharya, Kailash Kher, Mika Singh and Baba Sehgal; actors Jackie Shroff, Shakti Kapoor, Vivek Oberoi, Sonu Sood, Amisha Patel, Mahima Chaudhry, Shreyas Talpade, Puneet Issar, Surendra Pal, Pankaj Dheer and his son Nikitin Dheer, Tisca Chopra, Deepshikha Nagpal, Akhilendra Mishra, Rohit Roy, Rahul Bhat, Salim Zaidi, Rakhi Sawant, Aman Verma, Hiten Tejwani and spouse Gauri Pradhan, Evelyn Sharma, Minissha Lamba, Koena Mitra, Poonam Pandey, Sunny Leonne; comedians Raju Srivastava, Sunil Pal, Rajpal Yadav, Upasana Singh, Krushna Abhishek and Vijay Ishwarlal Pawar; and choreographer Ganesh Acharya and dancer Sambhavana Seth.
Meanwhile, celebrities such as Vidya Balan, Arshad Warsi, Raza Murad and Saumya Tandon straightaway refused the proposal and chose to go by their conscience.
The celebrities who agreed to support the political parties agreed to promote the party in question to create a favourable environment before 2019 general elections. Some of them even went to the extent of tweeting without having been paid any money to show their eagerness to the PR agency.
According to Cobrapost, most of them were willing to accept the bulk of their fee in cash, which in other words means black money. Celebs agreed to tweak the content on various issues to be provided to them before posting the same on their social media profiles to make it look as their own.
Some even agreed to defend the government on controversial issues such as rapes and fatal accidents such as a bridge collapse. To disguise the real nature of the proxy political campaigning, they were willing to sign dummy contracts and also sent their PAN and banking details
The celebrities swore to keep the entire exercise a secret, and the agenda hidden. Some actors even proposed that they would proxy promote the political party in their press briefings during the promotion of a film or an event. Some even proposed to post videos on social media and make them go viral with the help of their followers.
Cobrapost cites in its reports that the party in question was, in most of the cases, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress Party in some cases. “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,” the report said.
The fee asked by various celebrities ranged from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 50 lakh per message. Some even quoted a fee of Rs 20 crore for an eight-month contract, and did not oppose when they said they will be paid in cash.
Mahima Chaudhary, though almost out of the market demanded Rs 1 crore. “BJP toh kuchh bhi de sakti hai. They can give one crore a month (The BJP can give you anything. They can give 1 crore a month),” she said.
Sonu Sood, on the other hand, quoted a price of Rs. 20 crore to undertake the assignment. Not satisfied with the fee the PR agency quoted, Sood demanded Rs 2.5 crore a month.
Vivek Oberoi was quoted saying, “I have 25–30 lac direct followers in all platforms and their retweets make a ripple effect that goes to about 2–2.50 crore, about 10 times … so I can do that.” Oberoi’s manager agrees for a fee of Rs 80 lac a month in which 15 per cent will be shown in agreement and the rest in black.
Abhijeet agrees to do anything except criticising West Bengal and the Trinamool Congress. “I can’t do that. I will do everything except Bengal and TMC … I earn my bread and butter maximum from there only,” he says and quotes a fee of Rs 60 lac a month.
Kailash Kher, who has given his voice to the title song of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan agrees to the proposal asking the PR agency to approach his agency and set the deal.
Sunil Pal gives the undercover reporters a live demo of how he would mock Rahul Gandhi on his comedy shows.
Sunny Leone demands Modi government give overseas citizenship to husband Daniel, in case she has to support BJP.
Meanwhile, actress Ameesha Patel allegedly wants payment in advance before she starts tweeting.
Jackie Shroff says how it’s part of the game to keep such secrets. “Wo game hota hai apna-apna yaar … apna kaam hai hum acchi baatein hum faila rahe hain, saath mein Dhan bhi de rahe hain toh oopar waale se faqir kya maangta hai.”
Bollywood baddie Shakti Kapoor says he has ‘no confusion’ and demands Rs.1 crore a month mostly in black.
Actor Shreyas Talapade is agreeable to the proposition to promote AAP and is okay in accepting money in black.
During conversations, the celebrities revealed that they have been hired by various political parties for promotion on social media. Also, they know the rules of the game as many are already promoting brands on social media for money. Cobrapost has warned people to think twice while reading and believing the tweets, Facebook posts and Instagram profiles of celebrities.