Mumbai, March 17: The main reason for huge success of the Indian Premier League (IPL) T20 cricket matches is Bollywood’s involvement in it, former cricketer Ajay Jadeja and some others feel.
At a FICCI-Frames panel discussion on the co-relation between sports and entertainment here yesterday, the consensus was that the IPL succeeded only because of the entry of Bollywood and corporate giants as franchises of teams. Observing that the involvement of Bollywood was the key to the success of the IPL, Jadeja said this was why more Shah Rukh Khan T-shirts were sold than those of Sourav Ganguly
or any other cricketer.
Indians have grown up more with Bollywood as opposed to sports, and cinema has been a cultural centre, he added. Other speakers inluding Triplecom Media chairman and chief executive officer Kunal Dasgupta, actor Rahul Bose and former Indian hockey captain Viren Rasquinha also felt that people who otherwise would not have come for cricket came to see Shah Rukh Khan and other celebrities. The IPL Governing Council glamourised the event to expand its reach, Mr Dasgupta remarked. He admitted that bringing in Mandira Bedi in 2003 had been aimed at bringing in the glamorous quotient.
The panelists said cricketers or other sportspersons were not as savvy as actors when it came to marketing themselves. ”Actors are more effective marketing tools than cricketers even in the sporting world,” Mr Bose said.
——Agencies