Mr Bachchan, please donate the Rs 24 crore you got frm Pepsi 2 charity

Amitabh Bachchan's contract with Pepsi ended a few years ago.

Yesterday, Bachchan said that "he stopped endorsing Pepsi after a girl in Jaipur asked him why he promoted the soft drink that her teacher had branded as 'poison'," according to Economic Times.

According to the report, Bachchan has earned Rs. 24 crore thanks to his Pepsi endorsement deal.

So wisdom dawns on a Bachhan richer by Rs. 24 crore and 16 years after he first signed the lucrative deal?

What has changed in Pepsi or any other carbonated sugary drink since then? Has the formula changed? Has a new study discovered some harmful ingredient that one didn't know of earlier?

"He said he could not reply immediately, but it made him think, he said."This impression is on the mind of the people... So I stopped endorsing Pepsi," Bachchan said. "I tell this to my son Abhishek and to daughter-in-law Aishwarya also... If you have to endorse a product then you have to conduct your life in such a manner that it does not affect others' lives," the ET article quotes Bachchan as saying.

Why, Mr. Bachchan, did you not take your own advice? Why did you not stop and think before you signed the Pepsi contract (and banked the cheques)? You were 56 years old when you signed the contract first - have you suddenly become more intelligent? Have you suddenly discovered a conscience?

One can understand a brand ambassador badmouthing a brand once endorsed by him or her only if there is a material change to the product or to the reputation of the company which did not exist when the contract was being signed or some new revelation regarding the product or the company.

In this case, nothing has changed except Amitabh Bachchan's disposition towards Pepsi - and that makes his comment patently unprofessional.

Bachchan has had no problem backing, supporting and endorsing the Samajwadi Party. His conscience has not troubled him when he endorsed Sahara.

Outlook magazine spoke to Bachchan he endorsed the Samjwadi ruled UP tourism:

You are a great star and an icon of our times. Your fans are shocked to find you endorsing something that is palpably wrong. Aren't you damaging your own credibility?

I am neither a great star, nor an icon of our times. I am the officially appointed brand ambassador and a concerned UPite merely stating what the Central Crime Report contains. If you feel I am endorsing something 'palpably wrong', you need to check this with the Union home ministry."

No conscience problem there for Bachchan here.

If your conscience is bothering you so much, Mr. Bachchan, why don't you write out a cheque for Rs. 24 crore in the name of your favourite charity? Then we'll believe it is truly a problem with your conscience, not a case of sour grapes thanks to the death of the contract with a brand you once endorsed.