#NEWS | The Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued show-cause notices to Bollywood actors Shah Rukh Khan, Ajay Devgn and Tiger Shroff over their endorsement of a Vimal Elaichi advertisement. The FDA has alleged that the campaign amounts to surrogate promotion of Vimal Pan Masala, a product prohibited in Maharashtra. The notices, issued by Maharashtra’s food safety chief Tukaram Mundhe, allege that the advertisement creates an association between the Vimal Elaichi product and the Vimal Pan Masala brand. The FDA has cited provisions of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, in raising concerns over the alleged indirect promotion. The three actors have been directed to discontinue their participation in the campaign, remove related promotional content from their official social media accounts and submit their explanations within 15 days. The action comes amid the Maharashtra FDA’s wider crackdown on the promotion and sale of prohibited pan masala and tobacco-related products. The FDA’s notices now require the actors to clarify their role in the advertisements and address the regulator’s concerns.