Several people on Saturday gathered outside Shahrukh Khan‘s house ‘Mannat’ in Mumbai in order to protest against the actor for endorsing online gaming apps. After this, Mumbai police deployed a heavy bandobast outside the Bollywood superstar’s residence on Saturday afternoon.
According to the Free Press Journal, the protestors opined that these online gaming apps misguide and corrupt the youth, which is why celebrities should not advocate for them.
Untouched India Foundation, a Mumbai-based NGO has stated that they will be holding a protest against online gaming apps and portals like Junglee Rummy, Zupee, and others.
“Famous actors and actress work in these advertisements and they are working towards misguiding the society. The protest will be held outside Shah Rukh Khan’s Mannat bungalow on behalf of Untouched India Foundation.” said an official statement by the NGO
Krishnchandra Adal, President, Untouched India Foundation, stated,
“The new generation is involved in playing Junglee rummy. If someone is playing Junglee rummy or gambling outside, the police arrest them, but big Bollywood stars promoting online games are misleading the young generation. The Bollywood stars also know it is wrong, but they are getting money so they are promoting them. We make these stars famous by watching their movies and spending our money on them. We demand these advertisements to stop. These apps are illegal, we can not find them on Google, but these apps are uploaded on private web sites.”
“Apart from Shah Rukh Khan, we oppose Ajay Devgn, Rakul Preet Singh, Prakash Raj, Annu Kapoor, Rana Daggubati and cricketers who promote the online game. We wanted to protest outside the houses of these stars as well, but the police detained us.” Adal added
The police has detained around 4-5 people who were protesting.
As a result, on Friday, the government warned media, social media platforms and related parties against enabling and carrying advertisements run by online real-money gaming (RMG) firms.
The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (I&B) warned of “appropriate actions” under “various statutes” in case these platforms fail to follow its advisory. The ministry, through this move, aims to prevent both direct and surrogate advertising of games that may qualify as betting or gambling.
“Advertisements of gambling or betting platforms not only pose significant financial and socioeconomic risk for the consumers, especially (the) youth and children, but have linkages to money laundering networks, thereby threatening the financial security of the country,” the advisory issued on Friday read.
