Posted:
| |
| John & Bips |
No bid, no buy
The auction that went online on September 6 has personal items from Ajay Devgan, Bipasha Basu, John Abraham, Raveena Tandon, Boman Irani, Soha Ali Khan, and Katrina Kaif. However on visiting the website (www.ebay.in/charity) we found that none of the items had received any bidding.
No takers
The auction is slated to go off line on September 15 and instead on crazy activity on the eBay website by fans trying to outbid each other during the last few days, we discovered there were no bids on any of the items. There are no takers for Bollywood's hottest jodi's belongings either. Bipasha's bracelet with green and white stones) and John's red-and-black Yamaha cap. Both the items are available for a starting bid of Rs 5000.
Pilot test
About the poor response to the auction, Harshad Bhagwat, the communication director for Lintertainment who is associated with GSPCA and the auction, says, "The first batch of items is more like a pilot test that we are running. eBay knows exactly how to help us achieve our target of raising money from charity."
Other items
Bhagwat also reveals that he is in possession of 70 odd items from celebrities ranging from Amitabh Bachchan, Rekha, Aamir Khan, Sanjay Dutt, Rani Mukerji and others. "We have the who's who of Bollywood on our list. The next batch will have more items and we are looking out for ways and means to let people know that they can obtain these.
In fact, I have two costumes that Mr Bachchan has worn — one from his film Dev and other from Baghban. I also have Sanjay Dutt's yellow shirt he's worn in Munnabhai and Aamir Khan's soldier uniform from Mangal Pandey. We also have the red sari Kareena has worn in Omkara."
When asked what would they do with items that haven't been bid on or reached the highest bid, he said, "We may look out for other means to sell them, or even re introduce them on the website in the future."
Talking about the means to obtain these personal memorablia he said, "We have received support from lot of producers. With every item comes a letter of authencity from the actor stating it's his product and that he wants to sell it off. The more items we sell, the more money we can raise for charity."
Just a platform
We also spoke to Deepa Thomas, the Corporate Communications head of eBay India to get her assessment of the ongoing auction. She said, "eBay is the medium to get these products to those visiting our websites. I am sure there is some one sitting some where in the world wanting to get hold of these items." When asked about the lack of interest in an auction that boasts of big names said, "We don't deal with the nature of the items, or the actors involved in the project. We are merely the platform that is available for users to buy this stuff."
Seher Hone Ko Hai
Current Affairs
Cricket
0