Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Brand SRK!








I was watching SRK’s interview on IBN last night and the gorgeous host started the show asking him- “ So Shahrukh how are your preparations going on with only 4 days left to the grand start of IPL season -2? To this his reply was- “ Well they are going on pretty well, today the guys were involved in the fielding drills under Andrew and Peter, unfortunately Riddhiman Saha has hurt himself and will be out of action for the initial stages but we are expecting him to join in from errrrr..... 4th game. Also Gayle and Mc Cullum will be joining the squad today at around 2.30 am, so we are excited this time around, as we will be playing a full strength team for most part of the tournament unlike last time.” Watching this I was mighty impressed and rather surprised to see the level of involvement the guy has, being a part of every nitty-gritty in spite of the fact that he doesn’t belong to the cricketing world, this speaks of the level of energy and commitment he has as a human being in whatever he does in life. All this might seem to be an exaggeration or rather the feelings of an avid SRK fan, which I am right from my early days and rather his staunch critics might also say that anybody would have done this with so much moolah at stake, but I don’t think that the likes of Vijay Mallaya, Priety Zinta and Shilpa Shetty are a part of their teams or their involvement level is so huge other than those odd screams and signs of jubiliation which they exhibit when a batsman from their team hits a maximum or a bowler gets a wicket. But that’s not all, though SRK’s TEAM ended up in the bottom half of the tables in the last season, his was the enterprise which made the maximum profits, where almost all the teams ended up making losses, this was all undoubtedly thanks to the superb marketing strategy adopted by SRK, right from his promotional song ‘Jeetbo Jeetbo…’ to his presence in every match cheering his team ebulliently like a kid, or from roping in all his star team mates in the brands which he endorses, like bringing in Ishant Sharma, Ricky Ponting, Dada, Mc Cullum in Nokia and Airtel’s ads or for that matter bringing in all his fellow actor friends to cheer his team for every match, thereby increasing the glamour quotient and hence the viewership for every match. So eventually what happened last season was, people not only watched Kolkata’s matches for cricketing reasons but more so for the masala and hoopla associated with every match being created by SRK,the man himself. He almost did everything to sell his product, and outthinked all his contemporaries. Even the leading advertising wizards and marketing gurus hailed SRK for his shrewd marketing tactics. Even this time around he has launched a reality show 'Knights and Angles' to select the cheerleaders for his team, though the show is one of the most boring and non sensical shows ever being aired on television but then he has kept his team in the news much before the commencement of the game 1 and he has promised his fans much more if not from the cricketing front,atleast from his front to keep his fans entertained. IPL is not the only arena where SRK has shown his exemplary marketing or selling skills, he does this with every things he is associated with, be it any of his new movies, be it any of his television shows or be it any of the brands which he endorses, he makes it a point to cross sell each of the entities in his portfolio in whatever platform he gets. It can be promoting Airtel in KBC’s ‘Phone a Friend’, asking the contestants to hum the Airtel’s tune, it can be driving a ‘Santro Car’ in Rab ne bana di jodi or it can be gifting ‘Tag Heur’ watches to the contestants in KBC, he is undoubtedly a master marketer. The man has all the prestigious awards in his kitty, he has the biggest hits of Indian film history against his name, he has worked and still working with all the notable names and technicians of the country, he has the probably the biggest fan following and he also makes it a point to remind the media that he is the best, he is the king and he is the No. 1, much to the irking of his fellow actors J. But whatever you may call it be it a great sense of humor, over confidence, arrogance or under estimating his colleagues, making a constant dig at them, the man has an excellent sense of timing and he knows how to make the most of any opportunity. He has always been a man with very limited resources at his disposal, be it his very ordinary looks, be it his stammering accent, be it his just above average dancing and action skills or be it his not so great acting credentials, which I also admit, though I am one of his great admirers, that he overacts in almost 90% of his ventures and so one really wonders what is that which has made him come such a long way and become a phenomena for close to 2 decades now. What is that which keeps him at par or may be ahead at times of some really talented thespians like Amitabh Bachhan, Aamir Khan or Hrithik Roshan. I think that he is a complete package, he knows to entertain people by making fun of himself more often than not, he knows the art of public speaking, he makes you listen to him even if you aren’t his admirer, he has an exceptional sense of humor,he has built up his empire brick by brick, all on his own without any godfather and he very well knows the value of what all he has achieved in life and makes sure not to hurt anyone on course to his journey upwards. People may say that he is irritating, he is not worth a penny, he overacts, he is arrogant and he has achieved all this by virtue of destiny but then even fortune favors the brave and you need to have that mettle in you to sustain your destiny for such a long period of time, with such a spell bounding aura and charisma which binds one and all. You can love him you can hate him but you just can’t ignore the man.HAIL SRK!

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Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Circus Time!!!


















Its easily the most exciting, happening and buzzing time of the year. Undoubtedly the months of April and May are going to be the most important months not only for India but also for the enitre world because of the magnamanity of the 2 events taking place at the same time in bigger than ever form. One being the general elections of the biggest democracy of the world, which will see more than a billions voters turning up to vote for their man, their party and their government and on the other hand the staging of IPL-2009 which is only gonna be bigger and better with every passing season. There was quite a tussle between the two events, mainly on the staging and clash of dates of the two, though the election are a much bigger and important event by any standards but the governing body of IPL wasn't ready to compromise on their cash rich event, which is richer and more popular than the most high profile test series or odi tournaments between any top teams in world cricket.
If the Indian political circle has Mr Narendra Modi to add to the charisma and spice to the political circuit the IPL has Mr Lalit Modi with all his might and shrewdness to combat any obstacle on his way be it demotivating the rival ICL compatriots, be it convincing the most stubborn cricket boards to change their itinerary or be it the Indian Government itself for the scheduling of the tournament as per the decided schedule. Mr Lalit Modi tried all his skills in cajoling the various state governments to provide extra security beefing for the high profile event but it came out as a sheer coincidence that all the BJP governed states readily agreed to provide any level of security but the ones which were being governed by the Congress or the allied units straigtaway refused to provide so, stating that by no means they want to compromise on the security between this two high profile events, probably because the UPA government dont want a repeat of Mumbai terror attacks or Lahore Attacks on Srilankan players which very nearly cost them their government, so they didn't want to take any chances which might by any means hurt their reputation and on the other hand NDA and BJP led alliance is trying to make the most of it as they are not at the helm of things. No matter what but Mr Modi tried his best by coming up with many modified fixtures but eventually he had to move the tournament out of India because by no way he wanted to cancel it, missing out on the golden eggs which the cash rich Hen yields.
I wonder how much the guys from pretoria and johannesburg will understand and enjoy the rivalry between KOLKATA Knight Riders and CHENNAI Super Kings but then the stats say only 2 % of the people and revenues comes up from the spectators present in the stadium and the rest 98% comes up from the TV viewership and television rights and with the tournament being scheduled at the prime time slots of 4 pm and 8pm IST,its again gonna top the TRP ratings. But there isnt a surity that IPL ratings will be the sole winners, with so much drama, glamour and technology involved in elections this time around. All the major political parties have comeup with their promotional songs claiming lot many things which i actually doubt they have done and promising far lot many things which i am sure they can never do. They have also roped in personalities from the world of movies, sports and every corner possible to actually campaign and stand in elections thereby increasing the glamor quotient and temperatures during elections this time around. So when you see Priety Zinta, Salman Khan, Md Azharuddin, Sanjay Dutt, Madan Lal, Shilpa Shetty preaching you to vote in elections or emphasizing on the fact that why they should vote for a particular party don't mistake it with a film shoot or film scene, they are actually a part of some polictical party. With new demigods like Varun Gandhi, Raj Thackeray and Rahul Gandhi the heat is only gonna increase, and with pettier and nonsensical issues as their agendas to woe the voters, i pity on them what good they are doing to themselves or to the nation by such gimmicks but they are certainly giving lot of frenzy and readymade food to the news channel to reap upon. When the political arena will see these new faces playing there cards in such a high profile fashion the world of IPL will also see some charismatic and most expensive performers in the world of cricket in the form of Kevin Pieterson, Andrew Flintoff and J P Duminy. How these heavy weights actually fare in their respectve arenas is a different outlook altogether but the frenzy and the hoopla they are gonna create is going to be HUGE!
No matter who wins or who loses, 2 things are very clear, first being the fact that all the high profile celebrities who are actually preaching us the importance of a voting and the true and honest intent of their respective parties, wont be a part of this electoral process as they will be busy holidaying in South Africa watching the IPL matches and secondly Indian Masses will be the sole winner in this action packed period of 2 months with so many artisans performing in the grandest of circuses ever held in the history of mankind!

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kin...