Yash Raj Films’s sham meet

Rani Mukerji, along with director Siddarth P. Malhotra, recently introduced American motivational speaker and teacher Brad Cohen to the Indian media. Brad’s life story, interestingly, is the hero of Rani’s upcoming film Hichki, which will open at the box office later this month.

During the event, Brad, who has severe Tourette’s Syndrome, shared some touching experiences from his own life. Later on, the 44-year-old aptly answered all of the questions posed by the journalists present there.

However, while the event appeared to progress smoothly, it was entirely ‘planned’ by Yash Raj Films’ PR office.

One of the assistant PROs had a paper in her hand, which contained the questions that had already been given to Brad before the event. Moreover, a handful of journalists from several channels and print and online media, were handed one question each to ask him. Following this, Rani instructed the journalists to stand up one by one and do the needful. The PRO would then rush to the journalists with the mike in one hand and the scripted question paper in the other.

A complete sham. This was not how YRF’s PR office operated earlier. This is a shocking newly-employed strategy. Everything today is being controlled by PROs. Why bother to call the press at all? Just hand out the press release!