'Racist' Jewellery Ad: Aishwarya Rai Bachchan Responds to Open Letter; Blames Creative Agency [PHOTO]

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan's publicist has responded to the open letter, which had accused the actress of appearing in "racist advertisement".

The advertisement by a jewellery brand shows Aishwarya Rai seated on a couch under an umbrella, which is held by a "dark and emaciated" boy, as described in the open letter.

The advertisement has landed her in trouble after a group of activists for women's and children's rights wrote an open letter, published on Scroll.

In the letter to Aishwarya Rai, the activists stated: "you appear to be representing aristocracy from a bygone era – bejewelled, poised and relaxing while an obviously underage slave-child, very dark and emaciated, struggles to hold an oversize umbrella over your head."

The letter went viral on Twitter, following which several criticised Aishwarya and the jewellery brand for the advertisement.

However, Aishwarya's publicist responded to the criticism and said that the final layout of the advertisement was selected by the creative team of the brand. 

Here is what Archana Sadanand, Aishwarya's publicist, tweeted.

"Dear Farah Naqvi, Nisha Agrawal, Enakshi Ganguly , Bharti Ali, Madhu Mehra, Shantha Sinha, Harsh Mander and Mridula Bajaj,

"On the onset we would like to thank you on drawing our attention to the observation of the perception of the advertisement. Here is an attachment of the shot taken by somebody during the shoot. The final layout of the ad is entirely the prerogative of the creative team for a brand. However shall forward your article as a viewpoint that can be taken into consideration by the creative team of professional working on the brand visual communication."