In the midst of the rising voices to boycott Chinese products after the Ladakh standoff, Karthik Aryan has become the first Bollywood actor to drop a multi-crore deal with a Chinese brand. The actor has reportedly walked out of endorsing the Chinese phone Oppo.
Social media was abuzz with speculations after Karthik Aryan was seen holding an iPhone in his latest Instagram post. Sharing a picture of him clicking the sky the actor wrote: Yes. I am that Bua who needs to click the sky every time there is a cloud.” Netizens were quick to remark that the Love Aaj Kal actor was using an iPhone and not an Oppo.
CAIT asked celebrities to stop endorsing Chinese brands
Post the Ladakh standoff, where there was a violent clash between Indian and Chinese troops at Galwan Valley, killing 20 Indian soldiers and injuring more, the “Boycott China” appeal has been on the rise. Last month, the traders’ body Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) had asked celebrities to stop endorsing Chinese brands.
Opining that celebrities must ‘respect the mood of the nation’, Praveen Khandelwal, general secretary of CAIT had said: “CAIT will approach various celebrities like Deepika Padukone, Vicky Kaushal, Ranbir Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, Virat Kohli, Aamir Khan, and Ranveer Singh, to name a few, and motivate them to give up these endorsements, keeping in view the sentiments of Indian citizens”.
CAIT had on June 17 called for the boycott of 3000 Chinese products. “If our brave soldiers can fight in the border, even 7 crore Indian traders can also break China’s strength. We have alternatives for these 3000 products right here in India. If we can boycott these products then by December 2021, we can create a loss of Rs 1 lakh crore to China,” said Khandelwal.
Prior to the CAIT appeal, a number of Bollywood stars had taken to Twitter to declare that they will not be using Chinese products as a mark of protest.
Actors attacked by liberals and Islamists for urging people to boycott Chinese products
Interestingly the call to ban the use of Chinese products by actors like Arshad Warsi, Milind Soman, had irked the ‘liberals’, Islamists and Pakistanis, who had attacked the actors for their appeal. Upset with the actors from not speaking against “fascist Modi” and his “atrocities” on Kashmiris and Muslims, the actors were mocked and attacked by ‘liberals’ and the rabid Islamists, who have developed a habit of linking everything with the “atrocities” on Kashmiris and Muslims at the hands of PM Modi.
Confirming that it had been receiving complaints from various sources including several reports about the misuse of some mobile apps available on Android and iOS platforms for stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorised manner to servers which have a location outside India, the Modi Government had on June 29, imposed a ban on a slew of Chinese apps including TikTok as being a threat to national security.
