Last month, Shah Rukh Khan and Hrithik Roshan were involved in the first box-office clash of the year. Their respective films, Raees and Kaabil released on the same day on 25 January. But there is another issue where the two names have clashed, although unintentionally.
Recently, the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) shot an eye awareness campaign video with SRK. But the ministry of health and family welfare has shelved the campaign for the time being as, according to them, it didn’t have the necessary approval from the government.
An official from the health ministry is quoted by a daily saying, “NFDC had only discussed a proposal for a campaign to promote awareness about eye ailments. They told us they plan to rope in a celebrity for the campaign. But there was no approval taken for Shah Rukh Khan or any other celebrity. The videos were shot without our knowledge.”
But there is more to it. The official said that they were thinking of roping in Hrithik for the campaign since he plays a blind man in Kaabil. “It would have made sense as Kaabil is film related to blindness and an eye-care campaign can be linked to it. There was no proposal discussed around Shah Rukh for the campaign,” he said.
Interestingly, SRK’s character in Raees also suffered from eye related issues.
There are also reports about health minister JP Nadda being unhappy as the ministry wasn’t consulted before bringing SRK on board for the campaign.
For the time being, the campaign remains on hold.