Ranveer goofs up posting Maldives picture for 'explore Indian islands campaign'
Bollywood actively joined a campaign on social media urging people to visit Lakshwadeep islands and vacation in Maldives. Ranveer Singh too dived in only to make a big splash
Maldives may be the hotspot for Bollywood celebrities. But they were quick to defend India and the Indian PM Modi when he was slammed by the neighbouring island nation for promoting Lakshwadeep.
A furious Bollywood took to X (formerly Twitter) to wax eloquent on the "pristine beauty" of our Indian islands.
A stream of Bollywood actors like Amitabh Bachchan, Shraddha Kapoor, Varun Dhawan, Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar, Kangana Ranaut, John Abraham, and others went all out to urge people on social media to visit the Andaman Islands instead of planning a vacation to Maldives. And, in a show of solidarity, they dived into the ‘visit Lakshadweep campaign’ under the hashtag ExploreIndianIslands.
The goof-up
However, Ranveer Singh found himself in a bit of a spot on social media in the midst of the Lakshwadeep row with Maldives. Eager to jump into the desh bhakt bandwagon, the actor goofed up on the way.
Ranveer Singh, who played a not-so intellectual stud called ‘Rocky Randhawa, this side’ from last year's big hit, Rocky aur Rani kii Prem Kahani, joined the campaign under #exploreindianislands with his trademark gusto prompting people to “make 2024 about exploring India and experiencing our culture”.
There is so much to see of our beaches and the beauty of our country, he said, and asked Indians to #exploreindianislands — Chalo bharat dekhe (Let's explore India). All of which seemed to be coming from the right place, only that Ranveer had added on a picture of a beach in Maldives with the post.
Social media was quick to spot the error and pulled him for it. One user wrote, “You are promoting Indian islands while putting a picture of Maldives. What is wrong with you, Ranveer?”
On realising his gaffe, Ranveer quickly deleted the post and shared it again without any pictures. But social media users continued to troll him saying it was too late for him to delete the picture. Another commented, “Posted a Maldives pic and deleted (looking eyes emoji).”
Diplomatic row
On January 2, PM Modi visited Lakshadweep and shared several photographs of his 'exhilarating experience' snorkelling and enjoying the beauty of the island. However, public figures from Maldives passed hateful comments against India and PM Modi at his post.
This got the goat of our Bollywood heroes. Akshay Kumar jumped into the controversy to state in a social media post: "Surprised that they are doing this to a country that sends them the maximum number of tourists. We are good to our neighbors but why should we tolerate such unprovoked hate? I've visited the Maldives many times and always praised it, but dignity first. Let us decide to #ExploreIndianIslands and support our own tourism.”
While Salman Khan tweeted that the best part is that these beautiful, clean and stunning beaches of Lakshadweep, are in India! Yes, Bollywood at its 'woke' best!