IPL - League of the stars

This was a crossover waiting to happen. And we can safely say ‘It happens only in India.’ After all, films and cricket are the two biggest passions of our countrymen, and women (this should keep the feminists happy), and so when they decide to join hands, would we complain?

Where else would you hear about actors buying cricket teams, or any team for that matter? Imagine if Julia Roberts were to invest in AC Milan (like Preity Zinta is all set to form a basketball team) and call it the Pretty Boys team ... football wouldn’t be quite the same ballgame, would it?

But it’s happened – most of the buzz surrounding the IPL matches has been around which star has how much stake in what team, who’s going to buy a team, who’s going to perform for one, ad infinitum. Actually, it all started during the first IPL season. That’s when every time you said Kolkata, apart from Sourav Dada’s grim face, SRK’s grumpy one also came to one’s mind. This time, however, the fine actor that he is, SRK managed to smile and give quotes like, “The team should not feel that they have to perform for the sake of the owners.” But then, he left South Africa bang in the middle of the tournament.

All said and done, the stars really jazzed up the event – all of the 59 matches played out in 44 days – and made it the buzziest show of the year, on and off screen. The IPL was nothing short of a big budget film. The location was scouted for, the cast and crew selected carefully, the star players went (auctioned off!) for a princely sum, and finally, the three-hour game, replete with dance sequences and item numbers, was watched by almost 82 million people worldwide. This became such a sure shot success formula that every actor worth his histrionics wanted a share in the IPL pie pronto. Soon, every star was making a beeline to meet Lalit Modi.

Salman Khan is rumoured to have met with IPL boss Lalit Modi with plans to owning a team in the 2010 season. Aamir too has supposedly expressed similar wishes. When asked, Salman had said, “Let’s see. I don’t plan anything. Bid toh zaroor karenge. Agar bid mein mil gaya, toh le lenge.” Lalit Modi too was happy to share, “Yes, Salman came to see me with the possibility of buying an IPL team. I think he is a serious buyer.” Ajay Devgn too will probably jump onto the bandwagon, because his reply to a question about whether he will or won’t, was, “Right now, I don’t want to say anything because it’s too early. But yes, we are in talks. When it materialises, we will talk about it.” Sanjay Dutt thought he would go and meet Modi chupke chupke about this, but was surprised to see a posse of lensmen and journos waiting to click the two.

And those who were not talking of buying a team, made sure they were seen in the stadium while the matches were on. They waved, cheered, promoted their upcoming films – the IPL became a bahana for promotion of all sorts for the stars, last season being one for Deepika Padukone. The others weren’t quite sure about whether the IPL was the Ascots of India, where being seen would become a talking point of having arrived. This time, though, the whole galaxy of stars had smartened up. Akshay Kumar even did some stunts to prove that he’s a worthy ambassador of the Delhi Daredevils. Katrina Kaif, Mugdha Godse, Zayed Khan, Bipasha Basu, Raveena Tandon, Arjun Rampal, well, the whole of Bollywood was in South Africa. Bollywood was buzzing with the big bucks, but on the cricket pitch this time.