This app stops Shah Rukh Khan ads after son, Aryan Khan, is arrested

An app has stopped running Shah Rukh Khan ads within days of his son, Aryan Khan's arrest.

The app stopped running its ads that feature Shah Rukh Khan because of the arrest of his son, Aryan Khan. (MINT_PRINT)

Byju's app, has temporarily taken down all its advertisements featuring Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan. The decision comes after Khan's son, Aryan Khan, was arrested by the officials from the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in connection with drugs on a cruise case. Byju's is popular Bengaluru-based edtech startup. Byju's is one of the foremost ed-tech startups in India and it is backed by marquee investors, including General Atlantic, Sequoia Capital, the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, Naspers, Silver Lake and Tiger Global.

According to a report by The Economic Times, Byju's has pulled ads featuring Shah Rukh Khan for the past few days despite advance bookings after it faced backlash on various social media platforms regarding the association. “They (Byju's) have paused all SRK-related promotions for now. It had to be pulled as the company which is in the area of education wouldn't like to be seen in promotions with him given the controversy (over the drug case involving his son),” a person aware of the matter told ET adding that the ads had been booked a long time back, which is why it took time to take them down.

Notably, the edtech startup had also planned ads for the IPL 2021. Now, a source said that there is a ‘discomfort around the tournament'. Amid the ongoing situation, it remains to be seen if Byju's is able to pull out of IPL 2021 promotions.

Shah Rukh Khan has been Byju's brand ambassador since 2017 and the deal is pegged at ₹3-4 crores annually. Amid the given circumstances, it remains to be seen if Byju's drops Shah Rukh Khan from its list of brand ambassadors completely.

Separately, Byju's recently raised around ₹2,200 crore in funding from a bunch of investors including Oxshott Venture Fund X LLC, and XN Exponent Holdings Ltd. The latest round of funding is estimated to have pushed Byju's valuation to about $18 billion, which is a major step up from its valuation of $16.5 billion back in June this year.

According to the Registrar of Companies filing shared by market intelligence firm Tofler, while 42,095 shares were allotted to Oxshott Venture Fund X LLC, XN Exponent Holdings Ltd and Edelweiss Crossover Opportunities Fund Series III were allotted 5,262 shares and 5,261 shares, respectively.