New Delhi: Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan,&nbsp;whose comments on perceived intolerance in the country had&nbsp;created a controversy, ceases to be the mascot for&nbsp;government's 'Incredible India' campaign as the contract for&nbsp;it has expired.
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"Our contract was with the McCann Worldwide agency for&nbsp;'Atithi Devo Bhava' campaign. The agency had hired Aamir for&nbsp;the job. Now the contract with the agency is over. Ministry&nbsp;has not hired Aamir.&nbsp;
"It was the agency which has hired him. Since the contract&nbsp;with the agency is no more, automatically the arrangement with&nbsp;the actor no longer exists," Union Tourism Minister Mahesh&nbsp;Sharma said today.
<img src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/images/2016/jan/Aamir-Khan-m.jpg" alt="Aamir Khan is no longer 'Incredible India' mascot" /> Aamir Khan is no longer mascot of 'Incredible India' campaign
Asked specifically whether Aamir is still Tourism&nbsp;Ministry's brand ambassador, the minister said, "Definitely&nbsp;not".
'Atithi Devo Bhava' campaign, part of the Incredible&nbsp;India campaign was launched during the UPA regime.&nbsp;Earlier, the ministry issued a vague statement in response&nbsp;to certain news reports following government's answer to a RTI&nbsp;query on the issue.
"In response to certain news reports appearing in the&nbsp;media, about Aamir Khan, the Ministry of Tourism clarifies&nbsp;that there is no change in the stand of the ministry in this&nbsp;matter.
"The Ministry further clarifies that at present it has a&nbsp;contractual agreement with creative agency McCann Worldwide to&nbsp;produce social awareness campaign and the said campaign&nbsp;featured Aamir Khan," the ministry statement said.
Two months ago, Aamir had made controversial comments on&nbsp;perceived intolerance in the country for which he was&nbsp;criticised by many senior Union ministers.&nbsp;
At an event here, Aamir had said that his wife Kiran Rao&nbsp;had asked if they should move out of the country, as she&nbsp;feared for the safety of their children in a climate of&nbsp;insecurity.
When contacted, Prasoon Joshi, the head of McCann&nbsp;Worldwide agency, only said, "We at McCann had a contractual&nbsp;agreement with the Ministry of Tourism for a social awareness&nbsp;campaign Atithi devo bhava'. Aamir Khan had graciously lent&nbsp;his support for the same. We have delivered the campaign to&nbsp;the Ministry."
Sharma said the contract for Rs 2.96 crore with McCann&nbsp;Worldwide agency was now over.
According to ministry officials, fresh tenders will be&nbsp;floated to device any new campaign, if required.
Officials said a report by the ministry's market and&nbsp;research division will also help in picking up a new face for&nbsp;the campaign in future.&nbsp;However, indications were that Aamir is unlikely to figure in the future campaign, sources said.

Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan,&nbsp;whose comments on perceived intolerance in India sparked a row, ceases to be the mascot for the government's 'Incredible India' campaign as the contract for&nbsp;it has expired

Aamir Khan is no longer mascot of 'Incredible India' campaign

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Aamir Khan is no longer mascot of 'Incredible India' campaign

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