Aamir Khan found himself in the eye of a storm over his remarks on rising intolerance in India. The Bollywood superstar's candid remarks at the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards in New Delhi on Monday has the Indian Internet buzzing and also has left the film fraternity divided. Political parties are also taking sides over Aamir's comments.
Aamir had said: "As an individual, as part of this country as a citizen, we read in the papers what is happening, we see it on the news and certainly, I have been alarmed. I can't deny. I have been alarmed by a number of incidents," he said
"For the last six to eight months, there has been a growing despondency I would say. Kiran (wife Kiran Rao) and I have lived all our life in India. When I sit at home and talk to Kiran, for the first time she said, 'Should we move out of India?' Now that's a very disastrous and a big comment to make to me."
"That does indicate that there is this sense of growing disquiet, there is growing despondency apart from alarm. You feel why this is happening, you feel low. That sense does exist in me," 50-year-old Aamir said.
Perhaps not content with expressing their displeasure over Aamir Khan's comments on social media, many have taken their protest to Google Play they are giving the Snapdeal app a 1-star rating and demanding that Aamir be removed as the brand ambassador. Aamir was roped in as the brand ambassador for the online shopping service in March this year.
There is a little battle raging in the reviews section for the app, with another section of users giving the app a 5-star rating to counter the 1-star onslaught. While the 5-star rating for the Snapdeal app still outstrips the 1-star ratings by a wide margin there has been a noticeable recent spurt in 1-star ratings for the app.
While daily statistics for ratings on Google Play are not readily available, our calculations tell us that the app got about 1700 1-star review in the last couple of days, of which a majority is likely to have happened as the news of Aamir's comments spread.
Meanwhile, a number of Twitter users are tweeting with the hashtag - #AppWapsi - threatening to uninstall the Snapdeal app unless the company disassociates itself with the actor.
Snapdeal which had initially refused to comment on the issue has now released a statement to the media that says, "Snapdeal is neither connected nor plays a role in comments made by Aamir Khan in his personal capacity. Snapdeal is a proud Indian company built by passionate young Indians focused on building an inclusive digital India. Everyday we are positively impacting thousands of small businesses and millions of consumers in India. We will continue towards our mission of creating one million successful online entrepreneurs in India.”
A police complaint was also lodged against the actor by short filmmaker Ullhas PR with Delhi Police over the remarks.
When Flipkart co-founder and CEO Sachin Bansal expressed support for zero rating by telecom companies, Net neutrality supporters registered their protest by down-rating the Flipkart app for Android.
Bansal, has now come to rival Sanpdeal's defence, countering the contention that brands should be held responsible for the opinions expressed by their brand ambassadors. "Brands don't buy into brand ambassadors personal opinions. @snapdeal shouldn't face this," tweeted Bansal.
Also when Apple launched an Android app called 'Move to iOS' to help Android users make the switch to iPhone it was greeted with 1-star reviews booing Apple's effort. Another new Android app from Apple, 'Beats Pill+', also got a similar welcome.
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