Even Smriti Irani was finding it difficult to pay the monthly instalment for her house, the actress-politician took a stand for not promoting pan-masala and flavoured waters by alcoholic companies, saying "I knew that there were families watching, youngsters watching."
Actress-politician Smriti Irani has earned a reputation for herself, and she's often regarded as one of the most influential personalities on television. When Irani captivated the Indian audience as Tulsi Virani in Ekta Kapoor's popular soap Kyuki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, she earned the title of the nation's favourite bahu. Smriti has taken made some tough decisions to retain the trust of her fans, and one of them was refusing to endorse pan-masala.
In a recent interview with Ranveer Allahbadia, Smriti recalled that when she got married to Zubin Irani, she had zero money in her bank account, and she was also having a home loan of more than Rs 20 lakhs. Irani had difficulty even paying the EMI of the loan. "I remember when I began my journey I had zero money. I was newly married and I didn’t even have Rs 20- 30 thousand in my bank account and I had borrowed money from a bank to buy a home. It doesn’t sound very flashy right now but it was around Rs 25-27 lakh and I remember I could just scrape by to make the down payment for the house.”
At such difficult times, someone approached Irani to star in a 'pan-masala' ad. Smriti further revealed that the fees they were giving her for the ad were 10X more than the loan amount, yet she refused it. "I remember somebody walking onto my set one day and offering me an ad for pan masala and that money was exactly ten times the amount I owed the bank. I refused the ad, and people looked at me as though I had gone absolutely crazy, they were like, ‘you’re mad, you need the money’.”
Smriti further shared her thoughts behind refusing the ad, and added, "I knew that there were families watching, youngsters watching, and I was like can you imagine there is somebody making them feel that you are a part of the family and you’re suddenly selling pan masala. So I said no conscientiously." The Lok Sabha member further revealed that she even refused to endorse flavoured waters made by alcoholic companies due to the same reason. "There have been conscientious decisions about my media journey and that was because I knew kids were watching," Smriti added.
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