MAM

Kartik Aaryan episode raises questions on Indian cinema’s crisis management modus operandi

Published

4 weeks ago

January 7, 2026

MUMBAI: One holiday photo, one Instagram trail and suddenly the industry was back in crisis mode. What began as a few sun-soaked images from Goa has now spiralled into a full-blown online storm complete with rumours, denials, timelines, talking points and a PR defence that many feel has only poured petrol on the fire.

Thespark came in late October, when vacation pictures of Kartik Aaryan began circulating online. Social media users quickly noticed that a young woman, identified online as Karina Kubiliute, had posted from similar beach locations around the same time. Screenshots travelled faster than clarifications, and speculation about whether the two were holidaying together took hold.

Within days, the conversation took a sharper turn. Users began sharing old birthday posts attributed to the woman’s family, suggesting she may be under 18. Based on those screenshots, many online inferred that she could be 17 at the time, though no official documents were made public and no legal confirmation followed. Still, the optics alone were enough to set social media alight.

As the noise grew, Karina Kubiliute stepped in. She publicly denied any romantic association, briefly adding “I don’t know Kartik” to her Instagram bio before removing it and switching off comments, a move widely read as an attempt to escape the sudden spotlight. Kartik Aaryan, meanwhile, made no public statement, leaving the discussion to play out online.

That silence created space and into it rushed a response seen often in the past from the Indian cinema community.

Within hours, a familiar chorus took over social media timelines. Trade voices, film journalists and influential fan accounts appeared to echo strikingly similar talking points framing the actor as an “outsider under attack”, warning of a “smear campaign”, and recasting criticism as yet another chapter in the film industry’s long history of bullying stars not having an Indian cinema pedigree. Whether coordinated or coincidental, the uniformity was impossible to miss and it quickly became the story.

The outsider narrative has, in the past, worked in Aaryan’s favour. His rise without filmi lineage is real, and his his non-conforming with the industry establishment is well-documented.. But critics argue that recycling the same victimhood script in this controversy felt deeply misplaced.

What unsettled many observers was not defence itself, but the choice of defence. This wasn’t a box-office rivalry or an industry feud. It was a rumour involving age sensitivity and optics. Reaching for the well-worn “outsider victim” narrative felt, to some, like a mismatch, a familiar script applied to an unfamiliar situation.

The reaction intensified when parts of the online discourse began invoking Sushant Singh Rajput, drawing parallels between past industry bullying and the current backlash. While no official statement made such a comparison, the association gained traction in fan-led spaces and that’s where the mood shifted. For many, bringing an unrelated tragedy into a dating rumour felt excessive, even uncomfortable.

Instead of cooling the conversation, the defence seemed to stretch it. Questions were reframed as attacks, scepticism as persecution. Critics pushed back, not just on the rumours, but on the response itself. The focus drifted from what happened in Goa to how loudly and uniformly the defence was being mounted.

Meanwhile, the controversy continued to grow without new facts. The actor’s professional life rolled on, with multiple films in the pipeline and releases lined up for 2026. Online, however, the story had already moved beyond holiday photos. It had become a talking point about Indian cinema’s increasingly visible PR machinery and whether it knows when to step back.

What this episode has shown is less about guilt or innocence and more about timing, tone and tactics. In the age of hyper-aware audiences and screenshot journalism, old-school damage control doesn’t always land the way it used to. Sometimes, the defence becomes louder than the allegation and that’s when curiosity turns into criticism.

For now, the controversy remains rooted in speculation, not verified findings. But as Indian cinema has learned repeatedly, in the social media era it’s not just what happens that shapes a story, it’s how quickly, and how noisily, it’s handled.

And in this case, the noise may have done more talking than the truth ever did.

Related Topics:Karina Kubiliute Kartik Aaryan

Up Next

Vedanta chairman’s son dies suddenly in New York at 49

Don't Miss

Union Budget set for Sunday, February 1 as calendar cleared

Click to comment

Brands

Delhivery chairman Deepak Kapoor, independent director Saugata Gupta quit board

Published

2 days ago

January 31, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

Gurugram: Delhivery’s boardroom is being reset. Deepak Kapoor, chairman and independent director, has resigned with effect from April 1 as part of a planned board reconstitution, the logistics company said in an exchange filing. Saugata Gupta, managing director and chief executive of FMCG major Marico and an independent director on Delhivery’s board, has also stepped down.

Kapoor exits after an eight-year stint that included steering the company through its 2022 stock-market debut, a period that saw Delhivery transform from a venture-backed upstart into one of India’s most visible logistics platforms. Gupta, who joined the board in 2021, departs alongside him, marking a simultaneous clearing of two senior independent seats.

“Deepak and Saugata have been instrumental in our process of recognising the need for and enabling the reconstitution of the board of directors in line with our ambitious next phase of growth,” said Sahil Barua, managing director and chief executive, Delhivery. The statement frames the exits less as departures and more as deliberate succession, a boardroom shuffle timed to the company’s evolving scale and strategy.

The resignations arrive amid broader governance recalibration. In 2025, Delhivery appointed Emcure Pharmaceuticals whole-time director Namita Thapar, PB Fintech founder and chairman Yashish Dahiya, and IIM Bangalore faculty member Padmini Srinivasan as independent directors, signalling a tilt towards consumer, fintech and academic expertise at the board level.

Kapoor’s tenure spanned Delhivery’s most defining years, rapid network expansion, public listing and the push towards profitability in a bruising logistics market. Gupta’s presence brought FMCG and brand-scale perspective during a period when ecommerce volumes and last-mile delivery economics were being rewritten.

The twin exits, effective from the new financial year, underscore a familiar corporate rhythm: founders consolidate, veterans rotate out, and fresh voices are ushered in to script the next chapter. In India’s hyper-competitive logistics race, even the boardroom does not stand still.

MAM

Meta appoints Anuvrat Rao as APAC head of commerce partnerships

Published

2 days ago

January 31, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

SINGAPORE: Anuvrat Rao has taken charge as APAC head of commerce and signals partnerships at Meta, steering monetisation deals across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp from Singapore. The former Google executive, known for launching Google Assistant, PWAs, AMP and Firebase across Asia-Pacific, steps into the role after a high-growth stint as chief business officer at Locofy.ai.

At Locofy.ai, Rao helped convert a three-year free beta into a paid engine, clocking 1,000 subscribers and 15 enterprise clients within ten days of launch in September 2024. The low-code startup, backed by Accel and top tech founders, is famed for turning designs into production-ready code using proprietary large design models.

Before that, Rao founded generative AI venture 1Bstories, which was acquired by creative AI platform Laetro in mid-2024, where he briefly served as managing director for APAC. Alongside operating roles, he has been an active investor and advisor since 2020, backing startups such as BotMD, Muxy, Creator plus, Intellect, Sealed and CricFlex through a creator-economy-led thesis.

Rao spent over eight years at Google, holding senior partnership roles across search, assistant, chrome, web and YouTube in APAC, and earlier cut his teeth in strategy consulting at OC&C in London and investment finance at W. P. Carey in Europe and the US.

Brands

Brnd.me enters Europe as haircare brands power global expansion

Published

2 days ago

January 31, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

Bengaluru: Brnd.me, the global consumer brands company formerly known as Mensa Brands, has entered the European market following strong momentum across the Middle East, the United States and Canada.

The company has launched across the UK, Germany, France and Spain, with plans to expand into Italy, the Netherlands and Poland over the next year. The push is being led by its haircare and aromatherapy brands, Botanic Hearth and Majestic Pure, marking Brnd.me’s first structured expansion into Europe.

The European beauty market represents a total addressable opportunity of over $4 billion across haircare and aromatherapy, supported by high digital adoption and demand for accessible, performance-led products.

Brnd.me’s hair care and aromatherapy business currently operates at an annual run rate of around $6 million, with Botanic Hearth and Majestic Pure delivering roughly 10 per cent month-on-month growth, driven by expansion and rising repeat demand.

To support regional growth, the company has appointed a general manager based in Germany and is evaluating investments in warehousing and local team expansion.

Early traction has been strong. Within weeks of launch, Botanic Hearth’s rosemary hair oil ranked among the top five hair oils in Germany, signalling strong consumer pull in a competitive market.

Brnd.me founder and chief executive officer Ananth Narayanan, said Europe represents the next phase of the company’s international strategy. He added that the European business is expected to scale to a $10 million annual run rate by the end of 2026, with long-term ambitions to reach $60 million over the next six years.

The company’s Europe strategy centres on digital-first distribution, repeat demand and TikTok-led discovery, alongside direct-to-consumer expansion to strengthen brand equity and margins.

The move also aligns with growing EU–India trade engagement, supporting long-term sourcing and cross-border supply chains.