Actress sues city mall
Manjari Phadnis claims “illegal” campaign has cost her other endorsements
Actress Manjari Phadnis has served a legal notice to a Hyderabad retail chain for illegally using her pictures for promotions for the last three years.
Manjari, who was featured in the Bollywood film Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Naa, says she has lost several endorsement deals over the last three years due to this and the problem escalated when even her Wikipedia page started to read: “She is the brand ambassador for CMR exclusive and Chandana Brothers in Andhra Pradesh.”
“In 2010, around September, I was first invited to inaugurate one of their retail outlets. Before the inauguration, they requested me to do a photo-shoot to send out invites and also for pre-event publicity. I did this out of goodwill and trust. They promised me that these posters and hoardings would be down in six months,” she says. And within six months, she was invited yet again in early 2011 for another store opening.
Since the actress lives in Mumbai, there was no way she could check if the hoardings were down. But her friends would constantly call and tell her that they see her hoardings everywhere. “They have been using me as a brand ambassador without a written agreement or remuneration. While other companies wanted to sign me up, they back off especially since Wikipedia also started stating that I endorse these retailers,” she says.
For an actress of Manjari’s league, a ribbon cutting ceremony earns her around `1.5 to 2 lakh while a hoardings contract amounts to roughly `3 lakh per year, making it around `9 lakh for three years in her case.
“They later distributed my pictures to Chandana Brothers as well. I know it is a sister concern but it operates as a completely different brand,” adds Manjari.
After searching for two years, she finally landed the contact number of Sattibabu, director of CMR Groups. He asked her to contact one Singh. “I was told that Singh Saab was a right hand guy of the owners. I later found that he just worked with the agency that handled the campaign. When I spoke to him, he was disrespectful and even verbally abusive. I was really hurt. That is when I decided to go to the lawyer.” This was around January 2013.
“At the beginning of the year, they tried to take down a few hoardings. But in the next two months, while we were busy drafting the case, they assumed we had backed out and got them back up again. There are hoardings all across the state, on highways and even places like Tirupati,” says Manjari, who has pictures along with dates of these hoardings as evidence.
“All I am looking for here now is compensation and respect that I deserve,” says the actress, who has also worked as brand ambassador for Onida.
While Sattibabu, the director of the company, says that they have not received any legal notice from the actress, chairman Mohan Rao, says, “It is not our fault, so we have sent the notice to Vizag to our advisor K.B. Singh.”
The “advisor” K.B. Singh, when contacted, chose to play down the agency’s involvement in the controversy. “It is the client’s problem, not the agency’s. I have no involvement in it,” was all he would say.