BENGALURU: Bollywood actor Aamir Khan spoke his mind on the raging debate over acts of intolerance on Monday and expressed ‘alarm’ over the rise in such cases “in the last six to eight months”.
In a conversation at the eighth edition of the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards, Aamir Khan said a sense of “insecurity and fear” had seeped deep within society, even in his family.
But, he wouldn’t have expected that his words would affect the brands he endorses.
An immediate victim of the fallout was e-commerce company Snapdeal.com. As of Tuesday evening, according to sources, some 85,000 people who had installed the Snapdeal app, had uninstalled them.
Many others who had given the app five stars, began downgrading it, with many giving it just one star, the lowest rating.
The twitteratti went hammer and tongs at Aamir Khan. There was a barrage of tweets justifying the uninstalling the app.
Said another tweet: “Dear @snapdeal I would not be buying anymore from you until you remove @aamir_khan as ur brand ambassador...deleting app.”
The tweets keep increasing in numbers as the day wore on. The company did not respond to an email sent to it.
Just as people were uninstalling the app, there were enough numbers who began coming out in support of Aamir, and many of them began installing the app. Some justified their action.
Tweeted a supporter: “Till Aamir Khan was praising Modi, he was a nationalist. The day he criticised a bit, his patriotism is questioned? #IStandWithAamirKhan.”
Another said: “Aamir Khan was a patriot when he supported Swachh Bharat, when he spoke about intolerance, he became a muslim villain! #IStandWithAamirKhan”.