Mumbai startup protests Rajnikanth using ‘their logo’

By Raaghav G R

Posted on January 8, 2018

The legendary Tamil actor of Kannada origin, Rajnikanth, is very famous for his acting style and the punch dialogues he brings out in each film. Each of his films contains a ‘unique punch dialogue’ and a ‘unique action style’. In one of his films named ‘Baba’, which was released in the year, 2002, he shows a unique ‘spiritual symbol’ in which all the fingers in the right hand are curled up except the index finger and the little finger. The palm faces outwards and upwards in that symbol. It is known as ‘Apana mudra’ in yoga. A few days back, Rajnikanth, made a historic announcement that he plans to enter into politics in the near future, much to the delight of his fans. He vowed to run ‘spiritual politics’ in which all the workers of his political party will be treated as guardians of the party and in which the interests of the people would become a priority rather than posts assigned to party workers. The political symbol of his political party had been finalized and it is the same hand symbol as shown in his ‘Baba’ film which I described above.

In a shocking twist of events, a Mumbai-based social networking startup called Voxweb, has claimed that the ‘Apana mudra’ used by Rajnikanth for his political party’s symbol is similar to its logo. The only difference between the apana mudra, used by Rajnikanth and the startup’s logo is that the thumb in the right hand is not folded and left free, pointing outwards.

“If another company or brand has a similar logo, it will not matter much. But social media and political parties have quite a few similar traits – they have mass adoption, they are really close to their user base and so on. This creates a conflict”, Voxweb’s founder, Yash Mishra said.

“Social media platforms are being accused of favouring political parties during elections and using their algorithms to promote that kind of content. People are already asking us if we are favouring Rajnikanth’s outfit or if we have any common investors”, Yash Mishra said.

The startup has emailed Rajnikanth and his publicity team about the issue but is yet to get a response from them. When Yash Mishra was interviewed by News18 about what his measures would be to save his startup’s logo from the Rajnikanth juggernaut, Mr Mishra said that his measures would depend on the political party’s response.

“We are open to suggestions and would ask them to make some alterations. All that we have to say is there is absolutely no relationship between the company and the party or its ideology”, he said.

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Mumbai startup protests Rajnikanth using ‘their logo’