Varun Dhawan faced criticism for planting a peck on Gigi Hadid's cheek without her consent at the NMACC gala night.
Nita and Mukesh Ambani, along with their family, hosted a two-day launch event for the inauguration of Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC) in Mumbai last week. The event, a star-studded affair, saw the biggest celebrities from Bollywood and Hollywood attending it. From Shah Rukh Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan to Tom Holland, Zendaya, Gigi Hadid, Penélope Cruz and others, it was full of world-recognised faces.
Soon after the event concluded, several inside videos went viral on social media. While one had Shah Rukh Khan, Ranveer Singh and Varun Dhawan performing on ‘Jhoome Jo Pathaan’, another had Alia Bhatt and Rashmika Mandanna dancing on RRR’s ‘Naatu Naatu’.
However, one of the clips from the event featured Varun picking up American model Gigi Hadid in his arms and twirling her. He gave her a peck on the cheeks too, and the video did not go down with some netizens, who lashed out at Varun for kissing Gigi without her consent.
Now reacting to it, choreographer Shiamak Davar, who directed all the performances, told Hindustan Times that it was “Gigi’s idea” and that “she asked Varun to do so”. Shiamak said, “It is not true. It is Gigi who told Varun [to do so].” He added, “I couldn’t believe how much they (the audience present at the do) loved it. Mukesh (Ambani) had tears in his eyes and [his wife] Nita (Ambani) was wiping them.” Shiamak further mentioned how Varun had informed him that Gigi asked him to get her on stage. He said, “That’s why he picked her up. It was her idea and everything was pre-planned.”
Varun too had recently tweeted clarifying that the act was pre-planned, and wrote, “I guess today you woke up and decided to be woke. So lemme burst ur bubble and tell u it was planned for her to be on stage so find a new Twitter cause to vent about rather then going out and doing something about things ..”
Gigi too had shared a video and thanked Varun for “making my Bollywood dreams come tru (true).”