BMTC lodges police complaint against production house in Bengaluru for alleged violation of ad guidelines

Alleges violation of Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation ad guidelines.

Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) has filed a case against ‘Picture shop’, a film production house, for allegedly violating the advertising guidelines of the corporation and showing it in bad light.

A complaint has been filed against B. N. Guruprasad from the production house by Nagesh, Manager, BMTC depot - 20 in Banashankari police station. According to the complaint, Mr. Guruprasad had hired a BMTC bus for a film shoot in December 2024 after agreeing to adhere to the BMTC’s advertisement guidelines.

“However, for his personal benefit and for the promotion of the movie Nimma vastugalige neeve javabdararu, he had pasted the poster of the film on the back of the bus. He has shot and uploaded a video, which implies that the advertisement policy of the BMTC causes road accidents. In the video, he has used actors wearing BMTC-like uniforms,” states the complaint.

The 49-second video was uploaded on various social media platforms in the last week of December. In the video, two people dressed as a BMTC driver and conductor say that motorists on the road were only looking at the film poster on the back of the bus and colliding with the bus as a means to promote the film. This led to a lot of comments criticising the BMTC’s advertisement policy. According to the complaint, the BMTC got to know about the video on January 7. A complaint was filed on the same day.

Mr. Guruprasad claimed that he is not aware of the complaint. “I have been busy in theatres with the film’s release, and do not know about this complaint. Our team will look into the matter and sort it out,” he said.

BMTC, in its complaint, has demanded that the video be removed from all platforms.