Meghna Gulzar’s directorial Chaapaak was expected to be the biggest hit of this year, however, it’s actress Deepika Padukone’s visit to JNU amid all the chaos turned everything against them. A section of people believe that the actress didn’t join the protest in solidarity with the students but to promote the movie, and hence her movie was boycotted by a large number.

The boycott was so severe that Chhapaak’s IMBD score fell to 4.6 with 8,640 one-star ratings. The poor business and performance of the movie was further triggered by social media. On Twitter, the tag #DeepikaPRBackFired was trending, leading to free but negative PR for Deepika.

Expressing his opinion on the issue, Gaurav Jain, Social media expert says, “Anyone is free to have an opinion and stand against what they think is wrong but cashing the political opportunity which is sensitive to people should be avoided to promote the movie. Deepika’s sudden appearance at JNU was a risky zero cost marketing and didn’t work in her favour, instead, it backfired for both Deepika and her movie Chhapaak.”

“Moreover, I think an artist should not participate in any political stunts knowingly as it will always harm her/his image,” he added.

It’s surprising to note that Chhapaak is Deepika’s lowest opener in the last 9 years with the box office collection of Rs 4.77 crore. “Deepika’s action backfired and this boycott in turn directly helped Tanhaji which was released with Chhapaak last Friday,” explains Gaurav.