Is Gauri Bhonsle really missing?
In an attempt to promote its upcoming show Kehti Hai Tumse Kuch Khamoshiyaan, Star Plus chose a campaign that left many confused
You might find a certain Gauri Bhonsle peeping out from the posters stuck on city walls, on the railway station notice board or at a bus depot. She has been reported missing. Such an issue is generally taken very seriously, except this time. Something was amiss.
People who looked at the posters that declared ‘Gauri Bhonsle missing’ took a moment off to find out who’s actually asking for help. And if that weren’t enough, Ms Gauri even made appearances on Facebook, on news channels, on her blog and even in the dailies. After reading about the messages posted everywhere that said, ‘The NRI woman from London, Gauri Bhonsle (21) who reportedly went missing on October 15 on her way to Old Delhi Railway station to board a train to Malda, West Bengal, was rescued by the Saharanpur police from Talhari Biurg village on Tuesday. Police said she was rescued from a house, based on a tip-off’, a few people came forward to help, genuinely. One young lady who had run away with her boyfriend even insisted that she was the Gauri Bhonsle everyone was looking for!
But do you know that no real Gauri Bhonsle exists? She is just a character in the script of TV show Kehti Hai Tumse Kuch Khamoshiyaan. Gauri is all set make an appearance on Star Plus at 7.30pm on November 12.
So where exactly is this heading? We agree that Star Plus wanted to promote their upcoming show a tad differently. But does that give them the liberty to play with an alert citizen’s sentiments? People who feature in the missing report usually have families who are emotionally drained and desperate to find the whereabouts of their loved ones. And a spoof in such a serious territory doesn’t really set a good example, does it? What do you think, readers?
First Published: 5.07 PM IST 11.08.2012
Mohil Patel
Posted at 11:40 PM on November 20, 2012
This is really bad. There are various crime shows shown on television, which are like crime patrol and Shavdhaan India@11 based on true stories. This would make the audience think that even these shows could be made up when they are actually based on real life and the purpose is to alert the people living in the society of that that are likely to occur. This sort of promotion on ABP News is really “unprofessional” and they should never have supported this. I believe that the director of the show and ABP News should come and apologise to the audience for this sort of act. I started to watch this show because; it came on ABP News like a big thing. But who knew and was aware of this sort of publicity?
vidhi chadha
Posted at 11:05 AM on November 17, 2012
this is so shocking that star plus used this way of promoting their serial….we all were a bit concerned about the missing person, therefore, i think they have played with people’s sentiments and i dont think this way they will be able to grab a good TRP after release…..
saurabh
Posted at 8:33 AM on November 17, 2012
These people are playing with the emotions of decent people.They must be severely punished
SAYLI
Posted at 8:20 PM on November 14, 2012
It’s all not right .I think that the way of promoting serial is not right.It effet badly on some people.some became tense.so I saidtostar plus,”Dont use this way promoting another serial”