Recently, the government accepted the recommendations of a parliamentary panel, which made celebrities liable for endorsing products with misleading claims. This could land them a five-year jail term and  Rs 10-50 lakh fine. In a new development, it was reported on August 31 that the proposal was now on hold. However, the news has created a furore with mixed opinions on whether celebrities should be held accountable for the brands they endorse. BT gets experts to talk on the issue...

LAWYER SPEAK

"Onus should be on the manufacturers"
City-based lawyer Majeed Memon is of the view that celebrities cannot and should not be held accountable. “Celebrities cannot be expected to vouch for the quality and standard of the product which they endorse apparently for the promotion of the product. It is the manufacturer or owners upon whom the onus is, to ensure that the quality of the product so endorsed by a celebrity is up to the mark. When a celebrity endorses a product, all that he or she promotes is that he or she likes and uses that product for him/her. Beyond that, the celebrity is not a technical expert to guarantee the purity or high standard of the product endorsed by him or her. In such circumstances, imposition of heavy fines on celebs, to my mind, does not seem justified.“

While lawyer Kranti Sathe feels the punishment may be harsh, she also affirms the socio-cultural influence or impact a celebrity might have on an individual's mind. “Yes, handing out five years for this is really disproportionate,“ she says, adding. “But some ads are misleading. For instance, we do feel that our face is going to glow like X actress after we use a product or someone might feel my hair is going to shine and a large majority may also believe they will turn fairer after using something else. This creates an impression which does not turn into reality. But I really don't know if the celebrity who endorses a product is aware of the composition or proportion of all the ingredients inside. For instance, a skin cream may later turn out to be harmful, but how can you hold any them liable for what they are not aware at the outset?“ She also advocates putting the onus on the makers. “There must be more stringent punishment for those companies that put out harmful products. The celebrities only help market the product. They are not supposed to know so much. And if they do a variety of endorsements - which is quite possible - should they be expected to know in depth information about each?“

Celebs must think twice about what they endorse

However, lawyer Satish Maneshinde has a contrary view. “First of all, anyone endorsing a product is making a representation to the public at large on the same. That he, himself, being in a high position is endorsing a product best suited to human beings and advancing a representation of the makers, so he is culpably responsible. But for his statement, no one would believe that it is meant for consumption and public good and free from health hazards. He is thus equally responsible for that product.“ He says celebs need to start thinking about what they stand for. “They have to sit back and think twice about what they endorse as they are a huge influence on the common man. If you ask me, I think the punishment should be made more stringent,“ he says.

SOCIAL VIEW

Silly to hold them responsible
Social commentator Suhel Seth finds it wrong if one holds celebrities accountable. “It's silly and absolutely wrong,“ he starts. “Yes, they should be held responsible for any ads that have social taboos, for example, endorsing gutka and a fairness cream. But look at it this way, tomorrow if there is a fire in Mumbai, will you hold the CM responsible and put him behind bars for it? Let's not forget that there are so may factors that come into play here. If tomorrow a celebrity is in an advertisement for real estate and the builder for some reason cannot give the buyers the flat, how can the celebrity be responsible for it?“ He says it must come down to the consumer. “Ultimately, the consumer is responsible. It is ultimately he or she who is making a choice. It is bizarre to blame a celebrity for endorsing something; it defies all logic and needs to be thrown out.“

WHAT THE AD GURUS SAY

Moral onus yes, legal no
Adman Prahlad Kakar says while moral responsibility for the celeb is one thing, legal responsibility is not. “If the ministers want to make such a law, then they should keep in mind that they themselves don't deliver on a majority of their promises which they make during election time. So, if they pass this law, it will come back and bite them. Also, you can't hold a celeb responsible for something he doesn't manufacture. Celebs are just soft targets. When a manufacturer wants to make a product, they take make a product, they take it to the government agencies who test it and allow it to be sold. So, yes, the moral responsibility rests with the celeb if they want to endorse a particular product. But they cannot be held legally responsible.“

The consumer must be protected
Prasoon Joshi, adman and CEO of a global marketing firm says, “Most of the times our celebrities are very cautious and choose endorsements carefully themselves. But in twisted scenarios, where the intent is adulterated, there are filters required. Who should bear the brunt of this is a complicated question to answer, as marketing and advertising have many stakeholders. However, one thing is for sure: the consumer needs to be protected at any cost from profiteering.“

Need to define 'misleading'
Piyush Pandey, national creative director of an ad agency, says, “Misleading is a difficult word to understand. In this case, it's important to know what the term means. Today, I don't know what is 'misleading', one needs to understand that.“

Suhel Seth may feel like he is 21, but in reality, he is 52 years old. He believes in the saying that a man is only as old as the woman he feels. So when we asked him how old was the youngest woman he had been with at the age of 52, he immediately said 22. Having always topped his school and college and beaten everyone and anyone in any debate he has participated in, having acted with Mrinal Sen and having done theatre with Utpal Dutt, he may be anal and arrogant, but he is also brutally honest and warm. He is always prepared and impatient with imperfection, but has all the patience when it comes to his parents.Ahead of his role modelled on tycoon Vijay Mallya in Madhur Bhandarkar's Calendar Girls, he talks to Bombay Times about his proud Kolkata roots, Mallya's big heart and why he considers flirting as intelligent. Excerpts.

Talk about your background?
While I am a Punjabi, I have lived in Calcutta till the age of 28 and everyone says that I am more Bengali than most Bengalis. My dad had a factory of chemicals, which then went kaput due to unions and strikes and the naxalite movement. And that's when I decided that I would never get into business and would become a professional instead. As a professional, you have the right to abuse, you can be squeaky clean and you don't have to take nonsense from an excise inspector who is a jerk. I started Equus Advertising Agency with my brother in 2006. But I then realised that advertising had unintelligent people, brand managers who had no clue, who had never gone to the field but would sit in AC offices and guide the destiny of brands without having the feel of consumer insights. So, I got into high-end consulting and now advise Chairmen and CEOs on branding and marketing. I charge a bomb and have great relationships with my clients and while I have never made clients out of friends, I have always made friends out of clients. I am also a great believer in the family.

Talk about your parents?
I was devastated when I lost my father this year. I used to live with my parents and then they used to live with me, so we have never lived apart. We are not birds that we leave the nest and go away. If I am in town, there is never a meal that I will not have with them. Every day I eat my lunch with my mom. And that's the Calcutta upbringing. I love my parents the most in the world and feel that the only two people who love you unconditionally are your parents and your dogs.

Some people call you obnoxious and arrogant. What are you like in reality?
We want a level of political correctness and conformity and are willing to sacrifice our own self-esteem just to be popular. Churchill said that the only reason you need to be popular is if you have a wife and since I have none, I don't need to be. I am straight, blunt, even rude at times. I can't suffer fools as that is a congenital disease. I am extremely committed to philanthropy and have had all my staff work for me for no less than 23 years.

What does your mother like the most about you?
That I will always be there. But she doesn't like the fact that I am always rude, though not to her ever. She is always worried that someone would kill me, given my brutal honesty. I have never ever had an agenda.

Were you ever married?
I was married from 1989 to 1993 to a lovely person, Sandhya. And the reason we grew apart was that I wanted kids and she didn't want as she was career-driven. So, the only regret I have in life is not having kids.

You are full of warmth. Who do you share it with?
There is a particular concentric circle within me that no one will penetrate. It's a defence mechanism as I don't want to be hurt. I have always believed that money is transactional. I started my life on a motorcycle. But I grew and made everything on my own. Two weeks ago, I boarded a minibus from Taj Bengal in Kolkata to Victoria Station, as I didn't want to go all the way around. For me, the journey is not important, the destination is.

Talk about your role in Madhur Bhandarkar's Calendar Girls?
I like Madhur's films as they are real and talk about issues that we are in denial of all the time. He told me I am doing Calendar Girls and want you to play Vijay Mallya. Vijay Mallya, I have been advising for a long time and he is also a pal of mine. I told Madhur, 'I am doing Calendar Girls, but I will play Suhel Seth.' If I am playing Vijay Mallya, I am playing a parody. I want to do a character based on the person Mallya is, but not play him, which means being an owner of a company that invests in a calendar every year, who uses that calendar for social appeasement and makes a song and dance about it, as it is connected to his brand. It's an interesting character and when you see the film, you will know that it is not Mallya.

What is Vijay Mallya like?
He is one of my dearest friends and is one of the nicest and the most large-hearted human beings you will ever meet. He is a very poor judge of character and his courtiers, and for a long time, he relied on his yes-men, but intrinsically, he is a good human being. I have never stayed on his yacht or taken his hospitality or flown his airline, but whether he goes to jail or not, the courts will decide, but let failure not detract from someone's past of successes. In our country, we become absolutely vicious when someone fails and that I can't understand. By the way, he is so cool that he had actually told Madhur, 'Why the hell didn't you cast me?' He recently met me in London and said, 'I hope you're playing me well?' I said, 'I am not playing you.' Every business is allowed to fail but the emotional quotient we carry in India, is far more regressive. It's very easy to throw stones at a man who is down and out, but difficult to give him the opportunity perhaps to rise like a phoenix. He may or may not. But unlike the US who sees failure as an opportunity to rise again, in India, we see failure as an opportunity to castigate the person further.

You seem to be a loyal person.
Yes, I attach a huge premium to loyalty and also to how well you sleep at night. I believe in Munshi Premchand's story of Ashwathama. There was this priest who had the most-prized stallion in the village. Every day he would ride his horse, everyone would say what a horse and he would feel very good. But at night, he would worry about the horse and how he would feed it. One evening as he was riding his horse, one hunchback beggar asked him for alms. The priest got off the horse to give him money, just when the beggar pushed the priest and stole the horse. So, the priest went back walking to his house and for the first time, slept well. But he woke up in the middle of the night worried. He went back to the beggar's house and said, 'I will gift you this horse publicly in the chowk.' The beggar said, 'I thought you would report it to the police.' He said, 'No. But if I don't do that, people will lose faith in beggars in the future and will not give them anything.' So he gave the horse to him in front of everyone at the chowk to reinstate faith in humanity, went back home and finally slept well. That is also from where we got the famous saying, 'Ghode bechke so raha hai.' I believe that no matter what you do, if you harm someone, you cannot sleep well. I have never ever uttered a lie in my life.

Are you a flirt?
I don't think so and I hope I am not, although flirting is very intelligent and cerebral. It's far more elegant to flirt than to say 'Will you sleep with me?'

National Award winning filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar, whose next, Calendar Girls, revolves around the lives of swimsuit models, will not feature any characters lighting up on screen.

The director, who had moved High Court to protest against incorporating the smoking disclaimer in his last film, Heroine, has decided to do away with the smoking scenes in this one. “There is no way he can show smoking scenes in the film without the mandatory disclaimer. He had shot 10-12 sequences with actresses puffing on a cigarette before he took this decision and has done away with them,“ a source close to the development told Mirror. Konkona Sen Sharma was seen smoking in Page 3, Priyanka Chopra in Fashion, Bipasha Basu in Corporate and Kareena Kapoor in Heroine. But in Calendar Girls, which is gearing up for a June release, even Suhel Seth, whose character is inspired by liquor baron Vijay Mallya, too will be seen without his trademark cigar. “But he will be seen with a drink in his hand most of the time,“ adds the source.

When contacted, Madhur said, “The disclaimers take the attention away from the drama on screen and are a distraction. So, I have decided against smoking scenes.“