Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; August 1, 2017)

Varun Dhawan got a crash course in how to be a brand ambassador, when an innocent tweet from his end landed him in trouble. It all happened during Shah Rukh Khan’s recent appearance on Dance Plus Season 3. The episode saw Khan walk down memory lane, with heartfelt tributes from Remo D’Souza and his team.

Touched by the episode, Dhawan tweeted, “Dance Plus definitely has the best live dance acts on TV. Superb.” The actor, who has worked with D’Souza on ABCD 2 (2015), wanted to support and encourage him. But, his move backfired — an hour later, Dhawan deleted the tweet.

A member of Remo’s production team told mid- day, “Varun is an ardent fan of the show. He tweeted in support of the show, out of his sheer love for Remo.”

Industry insiders suggest that the actor was asked to pull down the tweet by the publicity team of Sony SAB. Considering Dhawan has been appointed as the happiness ambassador of the channel since last month, he could not be seen supporting a show of a rival channel [D’Souza’s show airs on Star Plus]. “It was a clear case of clash of interests. Varun did it with honest intentions, without thinking of consequences. But, it didn’t go down well with Sony,” says a source.

We reached out to Dhawan, but he remained unavailable for comment.