'PR tactic to save Varun's face' cry out netizens after Gigi Hadid deletes Insta post defending Dhawan

Varun Dhawan’s stint with supermodel Gigi Hadid at the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC) in Mumbai, India, went viral for the wrong reasons after he picked her up and planted a kiss on her cheek. It all looked a little uncomfortable as Gigi was seen rushing back to her seat as soon as Varun put her back on her feet. So much so that Varun Dhawan had to post a clarification tweet on how it was “planned” for her to be there on stage. Gigi, too, defended Varun and posted an Instagram story on how the Bollywood actor made her “Bollywood dreams come true”.

Check out her what she wrote to defend him here

The incident happened at the launch of the NMACC in India where celebrities from all over the world came to witness the monumental leap for India with its own version of the MET Gala. But looks like there was some truth to the rumours that what Varun did with Gigi was not all planned and that she didn’t like it as much as he would like to believe. 

A Reddit user has now pointed out that the American supermodel has deleted that particular Instagram story hours before it could automatically disappear. An Instagram story stays up for 24 hours before it disappears completely. Seen on a Reddit thread, the netizens feel that Gigi’s story was a part of the “PR cleanup” to save Varun Dhawan’s image and the stakes involved at the launch of NMACC. One user pointed out, “Her other Instagram Stories (including the one calling Karan Johar a legend) are still up. She has deleted JUST this one.”

Another Reddit user wrote, “She'll unfollow Varun too after this event's hype dies down completely. Give and take a week or two for this to happen. She didn't want her India experience to get bad PR so defended Varun for his kiss stunt and dropped a story. Once the agenda is over, she'll unfollow and go on her way.”

Many claimed that Gigi coming on stage could have been planned but what Varun did with the model on stage, looked extremely uncomfortable to all. A Reddit user wrote, "Why do I feel like this is a PR clean up is because 1) Bollywood dreams sounds like a very indian thing to say and it just seemed like a script given script followed sort of thing. 2) who comes and says me picking up a girl, 360 degree rotation and she wanting to run away from me was all preplanned? if its pre-planned her body language should be at least 10 percent like she is into it right? May be the plan was Gigi coming on stage (like Priyanka Chopra and Alia Bhatt) but not the acrobatics and kiss she was subjected to… its also a relief that there wasn't any wardrobe malfunction."

“Varun Dhawan lifting up Gigi Hadid, twirling her and kissing her cheek WITHOUT HER CONSENT is the most embarrassing and pathetic thing. What’s worse is – his PR team and him (who can’t spell basic words) trying to make it seem like it was pre-planned. I knew the entire Gigi story was just damage control/cover up on his or PR request which clearly backfired on her deleting it!,” another wrote. 

Gigi Hadid, Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas, Freida Pinto, Penelope Cruz and husband Javier Bardem were some global celebrities spotted at the launch event of the NMACC. 

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