Are Influencers Being Paid To Create Negative Publicity For Celebs?

A debate has broken out on social media, suggesting that social media influencers are being paid to spread negative narratives about celebrities, with several high-profile Bollywood figures at the centre of the controversy. Reports suggest that many creators have been offered money to post damaging content, while many others allegedly receive payments to remove or soften critical posts quietly.

Bollywood stars in target

The issue gained prominence after a clip from a recent AP Dhillon concert featuring actress Tara Sutaria went viral, showing her on stage with the singer while her partner, model Veer Pahariya, appeared in the audience.

According to multiple reports, edited reaction videos began circulating that portrayed Veer as uncomfortable and sparked widespread online speculation about their relationship. 

Tara Sutaria reportedly responded publicly to the situation, claiming that a “paid PR” campaign was being run to malign her reputation. She shared posts from an influencer who said they had been offered money around ₹6,000, to post negative commentary and follow a list of pre-written talking points.

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Tara responded, "Thank you @tanisha__malara for speaking up and sharing how this is PAID PR and done to malign my reputation. Disgusting that they’ve made a list of derogatory captions and talking points to send to hundreds of content creators and thousands of meme pages."

Tara concluded the post writing, "All to ruin my career and relationship? The joke is STILL on them. See it for yourselves."

Yami Gautam calls out negative PR

In November, actress Yami Gautam also alleged that her husband Adita Dhar's film Dhurandhar was the target of a negative PR scandal. In a lengthy carousel post on Instagram, she wrote that this trend was "a plague that will affect the future." 

Yami further wrote, "This so-called trend of giving money, in the disguise of marketing a film, to ensure good ‘hype’ for a film is created, or else ‘they’ will continuously write negative things (even before the film is released), until you pay ‘them’ money, feels nothing but kind of extortion."

She continued, “This monster of a ‘trend’ is eventually going to bite everyone. If the truth is exposed about a million things under the garb of who & what ‘success’ is over the past 5 years, especially, unfortunately, it’s not going to be a pretty picture for many."

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Kartik Aaryan And Online Speculation

Around the same time, actorKartik Aaryan also found himself the subject of widespread online speculation. Social media rumourslinked himto model Karina Kubiliute, in some cases including accusations that were widely shared on various platforms.

Karina reportedly denied any romantic involvement and clarified she was on a family trip, while there was no verified evidence supporting the claims against Kartik.

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The recent situations involving Tara Sutaria, Kartik Aaryan, and many other celebrities have once again highlighted how quickly short clips, online speculation and influencer reactions can become narratives. With no clear rules on disclosing whether such opinion-based content is paid for or influenced, experts suggest that audiences should be more cautious and verify information before believing what goes viral.