Ex-publicist Mandvi Sharma reveals truth behind Shah Rukh Khan’s 2014 boycott by Chennai media: “There was a MASSIVE mix-up by local coordinator; journalists told me, ‘It made for better news'” 2014 : Bollywood News

In an episode of The Filmy Hustle, hosted by distributor-exhibitor Akshaye Rathi, Mandavi Sharma of Tree-Shul Media Solutions and Gautam Thakker of Everymedia shared their behind-the-scenes experiences in the world of content marketing. Mandavi, who has worked as Shah Rukh Khan’s publicist, opened up about an incident when journalists got angry and boycotted an event in Chennai where the superstar was to promote his 2014 Diwali release, Happy New Year. The journalists were upset as they were made to wait for 3 ½ hours. While the media was asked to assemble at 4:30 pm, SRK arrived at the venue only at 8:00 pm. Mandavi revealed what led to the fiasco.

Ex-publicist Mandvi Sharma reveals truth behind Shah Rukh Khan's 2014 boycott by Chennai media: "There was a MASSIVE mix-up by local coordinator; journalists told me, 'It made for better news'"

Ex-publicist Mandvi Sharma reveals truth behind Shah Rukh Khan’s 2014 boycott by Chennai media: “There was a MASSIVE mix-up by local coordinator; journalists told me, ‘It made for better news’”She said, “There was a massive mix-up by the local coordinator. There was a language barrier which happens when Tamilians are conversing with the North Indians. Now that I work with Mr Kamal Haasan, I realize the scenario in a much better way. They have camaraderie; so, even if their person is wrong, they would side with him.”

Mandavi Sharma continued, “They boycotted the entire event where SRK had to be present and promote Happy New Year. They ran the news that ‘SRK was boycotted’. I guess it felt like an achievement for the local media. Later on, I became friends with most of them. I’ve always believed that what you can’t achieve by bullying people, you can achieve by being friends with them. That’s a philosophy that SRK has also followed and I learned from him.”

She added, “I spoke to them and asked, ‘Why did you boycott us?’. They replied, ‘It made for better news’! This is before the Instagram era took over. So, imagine the news channels already understood at that point that something like this is going to sell much more than SRK telling them, ‘I am going to sit here for as long as you want and give a one-on-one interview to each one of you’. They didn’t opt for it.”

Mandavi stated, “The same thing is happening right now, but it’s now amplified to another level. 15 minutes of fame has now become 15 seconds of fame. Some celeb might be sitting in a press conference and staring into the distance and that can be misconstrued as ‘This person is going through sadness in life’. That actor might probably be thinking what he was going to eat for lunch!”

Also Read: Did you know before @iamsrk, Shah Rukh Khan’s Instagram handle was @picsrk? Ex-publicist Mandvi Sharma spills the tea: “First time SRK made his Instagram account, he FORGOT his password! He wasn’t interested at all”; adds, “He’s a ROCKSTAR of a boss”