New Delhi: IPO-bound edtech major Byju’s has temporarily halted advertisements of its brand ambassador and Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, as his son Aryan Khan undergoes a drug bust investigation by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB).
Reliable sources told IANS on Saturday that Byju’s has stopped all commercials featuring Shah Rukh Khan, apparently with social media users criticizing the edtech company for endorsing ads featuring the actor, which Byju’s has been doing since 2017. Has been the brand ambassador of.
When reached, a Byju’s spokesperson declined to comment on the matter.
Byju’s is on an acquisition spree this year. In all, it has acquired nine businesses this year. The edtech giant is also looking for an initial public offering (IPO), which could value the company at around $40 billion-$45 billion.
Shah Rukh Khan has over 42 million followers on Twitter and 26.5 million followers on Facebook-owned Instagram.
The criticism came after the arrests following a high-drama rave party raid on the Cordelia cruise ship during a Mumbai-Goa voyage by the NCB on 2 October.
In a major setback to Shah Rukh’s son Aryan, a Mumbai court Friday rejected his bail plea and the bail pleas of two others out of the eight arrested people.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate RM Nerlikar, while upholding the arguments of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) legal team, dismissed the bail pleas of Aryan, Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha on “maintenance” grounds.
The developments came a day after all the eight accused were sent to judicial custody, and they were shifted from the NCB lockup to regular jails.
.