GUWAHATI: A Cobrapost investigation recently revealed that close to three dozen Bollywood celebrities were ready to use their social media platforms to endorse a political party for money in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections scheduled in a few months.
The organisation approached the celebrities under the guise of PR firm representatives and also secretly recorded their conversation.
The celebrities were asked to write messages supporting political parties including the BJP, Congress and AAP on their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts- to which most of them agreed.
A host of prominent names from the film fraternity who agreed to the proposition included singers, actors, comedians and choreographers. Most of these people were willing to accept the money in cash.
According to Cobrapost, some of the names who allegedly agreed to accept money to post in support of the political parties included playback singers Abhijit Bhattacharya, Kailash Kher, Mika actors Mahima Chaudhury, Sunny Leone, Shakti Kapoor, Sonu Sood, Rakhi Sawant, Amisha Patel, Rohit Roy among others.
Even television actors including Hiten Tejwani, Gauri Pradhan and Aman Verma succumbed to the offer.
The celebrities reportedly demanded Rs 2 lakhs to Rs 50 lakhs per message.
On the other hand, a handful of celebrities including Vidya Balan, Arshad Warsi, Saumya Tandon and Raza Murad refused to accept the proposal when approached.