Shahrukh gets three to four crore rupees every year for an ad by Byju’s
New Delhi, October 9 (IANS)| IPO-bound edtech company Byju’s has temporarily halted advertisements featuring its brand ambassador and Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, as his son Aryan Khan is under investigation by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in a drug case. Reliable sources told IANS on Saturday that Byju’s has stopped all commercials featuring Shah Rukh Khan. The move is believed to have come after social media users criticized the edtech company for endorsing ads featuring the actor, who has been Byju’s brand ambassador since 2017.
Byju’s is on an acquisition spree this year. In all, it has acquired nine businesses this year. The edtech giant is also exploring an initial public offering (IPO), which could value the company at around $40 billion to $45 billion. Shah Rukh Khan has 42 million followers on Twitter and 26.5 million followers on Facebook-owned Instagram. The criticism came in the wake of the arrest by the NCB following a high-drama rave party raid on the Cordelia cruise ship during its Mumbai-Goa voyage on October 2.
In a major setback to Shah Rukh’s son Aryan, a Mumbai court on Friday rejected his bail plea and also rejected the bail pleas of two others out of the eight arrested people. Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate RM. Nerlikar rejected the bail applications of Aryan, Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha on “maintenance” grounds, upholding the arguments of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) legal team. The developments came a day after all the eight accused were sent to judicial custody and shifted from NCB lockup to regular jails.