Move to rope in Kangana as brand ambassador fizzles out

Pratibha Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, October 27

The hopes of Himachal to capitalise on the popularity and acting acumen of national award winning actress Kangana Ranaut have been dashed as it has been decided to drop the proposal to make her the brand ambassador of Himachal Tourism for which several rounds of formal meetings and talks had been held in the past two years.

The decision to drop the proposal to make Kangana, who hails from Mandi district in Himachal Pradesh, as the brand ambassador was taken at the meeting of the State Tourism Development Board held here today. Even though the issue was discussed in the presence of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, it was a fuming vice chairman of the board, Vijai Singh Mankotia, who insisted that the matter had become victim of bureaucratic apathy and now there was no need to push it any further.

“Despite several rounds of talks and a meeting with Kangana in Mumbai, the proposal awaited government nod for the last over one-and-a-half years and now it has died its natural death,” remarked a visibly upset Mankotia at the meeting. He added that being from Himachal, she too was very keen to popularise her home state, but probably the bureaucracy was not too keen on it. Mankotia confirmed the dropping of the proposal and said that he would now be personally writing to Kangana to apologise for the delay and the proposal not working out. “The Gujarat Tourism Minister told me that the tourist arrivals to their state had gone up by 60 per cent ever since Amitabh Bacchan was made brand ambassador and we too could have done the same,” he lamented.

He also made known his displeasure over the delay in approval for the holding of the Himachal Travel Mart next year. The Himachal Travel mart was held in April earlier this year and was to be made an annual affair.

Efforts of Himachal Tourism to rope in a successful Himachali as its brand ambassador have not yielded results. During the tenure of the last government, talks were held with Preity Zinta who hails from Rohru but they did not fructify. Efforts were made about two years to capitalize on the fame and niche carved by Kangana in Bollywood on the basis of her acting prowess.

In fact, Mohan Chauhan, Commissioner, Tourism and Civil Aviation along with other officials had met Kangana in Mumbai and her sister Rangoli, who held detailed talks and the modalities of the shoot. The terms and conditions laid down by Kangana were to be placed before the Tourism Development Board which met today after one a half year though it is supposed to meet twice a year.

Though tourist arrivals to the state have been increasing but it was marginal and in 2015 a total of 1.75 lakh tourists visited Himachal.