3 min readHyderabadMay 20, 2026 05:20 PM IST
Actor R Madhavan went public on Wednesday with a complaint against a wellness brand that had taken a clip from one of his interviews and stitched it into a promotional reel on Instagram, making it appear as though he was endorsing their product. He confirmed he had sent a legal notice to the brand and urged his followers to be cautious.
Posting on Instagram, he wrote: “What a shame. How do these people and organisations think they can get away with this. You cannot take a clip of somebody’s interview and make it part of your endorsement. Legal notice sent. Please BEWARE of these kind of professionals and organisations.”
He also shared a screenshot of the reel in question, adding a note directly on the image: “This REEL is making it sound like I’m endorsing their product. They have just taken a clip from an interview without any permissions and used it as an endorsement from my end. How are the public ever going to believe these people and their treatment. Shame.”
What the reel contained
The reel in question belongs to an Instagram account presenting itself as a healthcare or wellness service. It opens with a clip from a 2024 interview in which Madhavan spoke about how he lost weight in 21 days through intermittent fasting, mindful eating, early morning walks, and disciplined sleep habits, a routine he had described publicly after his physical transformation following his directorial debut Rocketry: The Nambi Effect (2022). In that interview, Madhavan had explained that he ate his last meal of the day by 6:45 pm, chewed each bite between 45 and 60 times, avoided processed foods, and prioritised sleep with no screen time in the 90 minutes before bed.
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The brand’s reel then cuts to a man presenting himself as a doctor, who comments on Madhavan’s transformation, creating the impression that the actor’s weight loss journey was connected to or facilitated by the brand’s services. Madhavan is not shown endorsing the brand at any point, but the construction of the reel is designed to leave that impression with a viewer who does not look closely.
The actor noted an additional detail in his post. He mentioned that the original interview clip may show him holding a cigarette at the very beginning of the scene, before putting it out. He clarified this was unrelated to the brand’s reel but chose to address it directly to avoid any misunderstanding about the context of the clip.
Not the only celebrity used this way
Madhavan is not the only public figure whose interview footage this brand appears to have repurposed without consent. The same Instagram account has published similar reels using interview clips of Karan Johar and Ram Kapoor, both of whom are well known for their own significant physical transformations in recent years. Karan Johar’s weight loss attracted considerable public attention in 2024 and 2025. Ram Kapoor shed 55 kilograms over 18 months through diet and exercise, a transformation that was widely covered in the Indian media.
