In yet another shocking expose by Cobrapost, as many as three dozen Bollywood celebrities, TV stars and comedians have been found to agree to make social media posts in favour of a political party in exchange of money. The sting operation titled "Operation Karaoke" exposed big names from the industry in getting involved in this unethical practice in the wake of 2019 general elections.
Celebrities from Bollywood who agreed to be a part of the foul practice are singer Abhijeet Bhattacharya, Kailash Kher, Mika Singh, Baba Sehgal. Among the lot of actors are Vivek Oberoi, Jackie Shroff, Shakti Kapoor, Sonu Sood, Amisha Patel, Mahima Chaudhry, Puneet Issar, Surendra Pal, Shreyas Talpade, Pankaj Dheer, his son Nikitin Dheer, Tisca Chopra, Rohit Roy, Deepshikha Nagpal, Akhilendra Mishra, Rahul Bhat, Salim Zaidi, Rakhi Sawant, Aman Verma, Hiten Tejwani, his wife Gauri Pradhan, Evelyn Sharma, Minissha Lamba, Koena Mitra, Poonam Pandey and Sunny Leone.
Comedians who got exposed are Raju Srivastava, Sunil Pal, Rajpal Yadav, Upasana Singh, Krushna Abhishek and Vijay Ishwarlal Pawar. Choreographers Ganesh Acharya and Sambhavana Seth also come in the list.
Some of the celebrities who refused to accept the offer are Vidya Balan, Arshad Warsi, Raza Murad and Saumya Tandon.
Reporters of Cobrapost, equipped with hidden cameras, approached the mentioned celebrities, asking them if they would like promote a particular political party discreetly on social media in exchange of hefty money.
The price ranged from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 50 lakh per message, and the report stated that some of the stars even demanded money ranging to Rs 20 crore for an eight-month contract. They even agreed to accept the money in cash, which necessarily means black money.
This shocking expose left netizens fuming with hashtag #BikaooBollywood trending on Twitter. Check the videos posted by Cobrapost exposing the stars.
#OperationKaraoke: On approaching the Author & Actor Tisca Chopra, we enquire if she would like to Promote the AAP. Agreeing, she asks, “Kab tak karna ye ?” #BikaooBollywood pic.twitter.com/hQ8GSmwAqu
— Cobrapost (@cobrapost) February 19, 2019
Kailash Kher tells us that his agency will handle the Commercial aspects of the Deal, with a hidden agenda: “Haan, Hidden mein bhi wo batayenge commercial hum Nahi batayenge. Hum bas Haan ya Na kar sakte hain, ki ye kaam hum kar payenge ya Nahi kar payenge” #BikaooBollywood pic.twitter.com/RtiG1cXnKL
— Cobrapost (@cobrapost) February 19, 2019
#OperationKaraoke: Agreeing to promote AAP on Social media, Actor & Director Shreyas Talpade asks how many Messages he is supposed to tweet, “Haan aur ye aapko kitne duration mein tweet lenge” #BikaooBollywood pic.twitter.com/aYKrG285w9
— Cobrapost (@cobrapost) February 19, 2019
#OperationKaraoke: Any doubt? “Nahi, nahi, Bilkul nahi. I got the point” says Sonu Sood. He seeks to Increase his Fee “I feel ki jo apan 1.5 crore soch rahe hain it should be at least 2.5” #BikaooBollywood pic.twitter.com/le4U12LRh3
— Cobrapost (@cobrapost) February 19, 2019
#OperationKaraoke: Issar is ready to make Controversial tweets to destroy Political Opponents of the BJP “Main aapse discuss kar loonga … sir, ye main inki Maar sakta hoon, Destroy kar sakta hoon…we will talk the Money then” #BikaooBollywood pic.twitter.com/hXinRcHYRO
— Cobrapost (@cobrapost) February 19, 2019
Minissha Lamba is disappointed when told a part of her fee will be paid in white. “No I thought it was a mainly a cash deal toh fir jo contract banega what is going to be scope of” #BikaooBollywood pic.twitter.com/SIJPlNMHT1
— Cobrapost (@cobrapost) February 19, 2019
#OperationKaraoke: Savant makes a revelation on how she was hired earlier for the same purpose: “Last time bhi aise hua tha mujhe hire kiya tha Rajnath ji ne pata hai” #BikaooBollywood pic.twitter.com/9iOeOushkW
— Cobrapost (@cobrapost) February 19, 2019
#OperationKaraoke: For Amisha Patel, Money is the Top Priority even before she makes some general tweets “Samajho aap 28 ko aa rahe ho, transaction ho jaata hai 28 kee sham ko main kar doongi…” #BikaooBollywood pic.twitter.com/8n0b3IrH04
— Cobrapost (@cobrapost) February 19, 2019
#OperationKaraoke: Oberoi seeks required Data to make his messages look Factually Credible, something not paid for. “Aap data wagaireh bhi denge na...Data ke hissab se hum likh sakte hain … aisa lagna Nahi chahiye ki humein Bola gaya hai likhne ke liye” #BikaooBollywood pic.twitter.com/2SgD5TDMoN
— Cobrapost (@cobrapost) February 19, 2019
#OperationKaraoke: Sunny Leonne has a condition of granting her husband Overseas Citizenship to support BJP: “Modi Sir ne Daniel ko overseas citizen banaya toh hum zaroor support karenge.” #BikaooBollywood pic.twitter.com/nGGw0OonRy
— Cobrapost (@cobrapost) February 19, 2019