After Sonika death controversy, Vikram commercial goes off air

KOLKATA: Actor Vikram Chatterjee’s controversial role in Sonika Singh Chauhan’s death has triggered a ‘Boycott Vikram’ campaign across social media. While some are guessing that the decision to quickly wrap up his popular mega-serial ‘Ichchhe Nodi’ is a result of this controversy, others are wondering why the Vivo handset ad featuring him has suddenly disappeared from television.After Vikram’s Vivo commercial went off air, his fans were extremely upset. In a statement to TOI, Vivek Zhang, CMO, Vivo mobiles India, said, “The ad film was part of the TVC campaign that Vivo brought during the recently concluded IPL. With the10th edition of the VIVO IPL now over, the timeline of the campaign has also ended. Hence, the TVC has gone off air as we are in process of planning and rolling out new TVC campaigns.”Advertising professionals insist that if a brand ambassador gets enmeshed in a serious controversy, there are chances of it hurting the brand. “In such cases, the brand may deem his or her continued presence detrimental to the equity. In such cases, the brand can take a decision of not renewing the contract. Maria Sharaprova was embroiled in a big drug controversy that cut short her tennis career. She was one of the highest paid brand ambassadors in the world. When brands distance themselves, they don’t always give out these reasons in public,” said Sugota Guha, director of Inner Circle Advertising. On being asked about his views on the fate of Vikram’s commercial, Guha said, “The company might have given IPL’s closure as the reason behind the ad going off air. I wouldn’t be surprised if the prevalent public opinion had promoted Vivo to take a cautious wait and watch stance.”Leena Gangopadhyay, creative director and script writer of ‘Ichchhe Nodi’, described the decision to drop Vikram’s Vivo ad as ‘unfortunate’. “The decision to end my serial was taken much before this controversy. Solanki — lead actor — was going abroad and wanted to leave by April. Vikram too was aware of it. So, there was no way that we could shoot the serial after this time. The last episode will be shown on Sunday. Vikram is a professional actor and if there is no legal hassle, I would definitely want to work with him in future,” she said.