Vidya Balan and Farhan Akhtar’s support for Rohit Sharma fuels PR campaign speculation

Rohit Sharma, Indian cricket captain, has become a topic of widespread discussion after opting out of captaincy in the last match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. The decision led to speculation about his future in Test cricket, prompting Sharma to address the rumours in a 15-minute mid-match interview, during which he denied plans to retire from the format.

Following the interview, Bollywood actors Vidya Balan and Farhan Akhtar expressed their support for Sharma on social media.

Balan posted on X (formerly known as Twitter): "Rohit Sharma, what a SUPERSTAR !! To take a pause & catch your breath requires courage ... More power to you ... Respect !!"

Rohit Sharma, what a SUPERSTAR 🤩!!
To take a pause & catch your breath requires courage … More power to you … Respect 🙌 !! @ImRo45

— vidya balan (@vidya_balan) January 4, 2025

However, the post quickly attracted scrutiny. Community Notes on X flagged the tweet as potentially violating the platform’s guidelines on undisclosed sponsored posts, stating:

"Community Notes: This post by Vidya Balan appears to be an undisclosed sponsored post, which violates the platform's Terms of Service. Sponsored posts must be transparently disclosed according to X's guidelines."

Vidya Balan gets Community-Noted pic.twitter.com/LrfIYXoUzl

— Kartikeya Tanna (@KartikeyaTanna) January 5, 2025

Although the Community Notes were later removed, the controversy persisted, with some users accusing Balan of sharing this as PR activity and getting paid for doing this. 

Critics on Instagram also claimed that her post was identical to a WhatsApp-forwarded text. Balan reportedly deleted the post after screenshots went viral.

Instagram story of Vidya Balan in support of Rohit sharma

She literally posted the screenshot of her chat with Rohit’s PR team 😂 pic.twitter.com/qnkmeb3HTP

— Dr Nimo Yadav 2.0 (@niiravmodi) January 4, 2025

Adding to the intrigue, Farhan Akhtar also posted his support on Instagram, referring to Sharma as a “superstar” and expressing hope to see him return to the field soon. Sharma’s wife, Ritika Sajdeh, responded to Akhtar’s post with a tear emoji, further fueling speculation.

Interestingly, neither Balan nor Akhtar follows Sharma on social media, raising questions about the nature of the posts. The timing of these posts has led to speculation about potential PR involvement in managing the narrative surrounding Sharma’s bad performance in the test matches.