Sidharth Malhotra tweeted, "Sorry, I'm done." (Image courtesy: Sidharth Malhotra)
Highlights
- Never expected this from Aiyaary team: said a Twitter user
- Aiyaary actresses also tweeted with the trending hashtag
- Just another cringe worthy marketing move, read a tweet
Actor Sidharth Malhotra caused something of a flutter on social media today after appearing to check out of his Twitter and Instagram accounts. "Sorry, I am done," the 32-year-old actor posted after changing his DP to black and updating his bio to read 'Off.' His followers instantly wanted to know if all was well - but quickly became suspicious when actress Rakul Preet Singh, Sidharth's co-star from the film
Aiyaary, responded to his tweet asking if things were okay. Her seemingly concerned query would have otherwise raised no red flags had she not added the hashtag #SidsOffTheGrid.
Soon, #SidsOffTheGrid was one of the top trends on Twitter and yes, it was a gimmick to promote
Aiyaary. However, it might prove to be counter-productive because the marketing ploy doesn't seem to have impressed the Internet. "If this is a promotional strategy it will backfire and then Sid will be blamed badly. Never expected this from
Aiyaary team tbh (to be honest) thought they were sensible," tweeted one user.
Aiyaary actress Pooja Chopra wasn't helping with this tweet:
Aiyaary's verified Twitter handle retweeted Pooja and Rakul Preet's posts. The strategy was dismissed by one user as "cringe-worthy marketing":
One Twitter user shared a screenshot of a message which appears to be from the film's marketing team and captioned it: "Absurdity." The said message read: "We're doing a promotional activity for
Aiyaary with Sidharth Malhotra and we want you guys to make as much noise about it as possible. The hashtag is #SidsOffTheGrid. We want you to speculate reasons as to why he's gone? Where he is? Is something wrong with him?, etc. Let's make Sid trend all day." The authenticity of the message hasn't been established yet.
However, plenty of Sidharth Malhotra's fans did indeed seem anxious about him:
Sidharth Malhotra is no stranger to having his
attempts to publicise a film on Twitter backfire. Some months ago, he was massively trolled after appearing to exploit the violence that followed the conviction of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim to promote his film
A Gentleman.
Earlier this year,
Twitter turned on south actress Varalaxmi Sarathkumar after a pretend kidnapping in aid of her film
Sathya. A picture of the actress, which made it seem as if she had been abducted, went viral with the hashtag #VaralaxmiGotKidnapped. The actress clarified later that she was safe and that she hadn't been aware of the publicity gimmick but the damage was done.
Back to
Aiyaary - The film is directed by Neeraj Pandey and it also stars Manoj Bajpayee, Anupam Kher and Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub.