MHADA sends legal notice to Anil Kapoor
Ekta World’s digital ad
Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) has issued a legal notice to Bollywood actor Anil Kapoor for appearing in an advertisement of a real estate company that claims to offer flats at cheaper rates that the state run housing department.
As a not-for-profit institution, MHADA is supposed to provide affordable housing solutions to citizens at the lowest possible rates.
The actor had recently appeared in the print and digital ad campaign of real estate firm Ekta World. In the ad, the firm claimed to offer flats in Virar and Nashik areas at rates lower than that of MHADA. The advertorial read, “Upto 850 lucky winners will get homes at EKTA World’s fabulous townships in Virar and Nashik for less than MHADA rates!”
According to Ashok Mohanani, owner of Ekta World, the company decided to run the campaign after it found that MHADA had sold their flats at higher than market rates. The company’s website also has a comparison between per sq.mt rates offered by them and other housing authority’s in Virar. As per the data available on the company’s website, per sq.mt rate quoted by Ekta World is Rs 63,418 whereas MHADA had sold flats in February at a rate of Rs 73,816.
Despite the explanation, the housing authority decided to take action and sent legal notice to both the owner of the company and Anil Kapoor (for appearing in the ad), citing that the firm has illegally and maliciously used MHADA’s name to promote a scheme based on false and unauthorized information.
When asked about the notice, MHADA secretary Bharat Bastewad said, “How can anyone endorse any firm’s claims without confirming whether they are true or false? We have issued a legal notice to Anil Kapoor for endorsing false claims. Mr Kapoor should have confirmed with MHADA before endorsing such claims by a private construction firm.”
The legal notice issued to Kapoor reads, “This is to bring to your notice that you have caused damage to the image of MHADA and violated regulations of the Advertising Standards Council of India”. The actor has not responded to the notice till now.
After receiving MHADA’s notice, Mohanani told Deccan Chronicle, “We have not made false claims. We have disclosed in our communication and website the source of information where MHADA has publicised its rates at Virar and Nashik and our rates are lesser than theirs. We are transparent and would like our prospective customers to be aware and educated of the facts before they make a decision.”
