hrithik and katrina perform in stadiums

Hrithik Roshan and Katrina Kaif to perform in stadiums for IPL
Posted on Wednesday, April 09, 2008 (EST)
Unsure of viewer interest in cricket matches that do not involve national teams, IPL team owners are desperately banking on the presence of movie stars in the stadiums to give fans enough reason to part with their money to view the match.


April 9, 2008 (Sawf News) - Unsure of viewer interest in cricket matches that do not involve national teams, IPL team owners are desperately banking on the presence of movie stars in the stadiums to give fans enough reason to part with their money to view the match. Hrithik Roshan is not only filming a promotional video for Mukesh Ambani's IPL team - Mumbai Indians he will cavort with the team members in the stadium to the beats of the team's anthem, reports HT. Similarly, Katrina Kaif, besides featuring in music video with Deepika Padukone to promote Vijay Mallya's Bangalore IPL team - Royal Challengers, will perform at the opening ceremony with Zayed Khan, reports Mumbai Mirror. Akshay Kumar, who is promoting GMR Group's Delhi Daredevils has already committed to being on the field "You'll find me in the stadium for every match, encouraging my team, cheering them on, and waving to them from the field," he told the press recently. India Cement, who owns Chennai Super Kings plans to bring Tamil stars Vijay and Nayantara on to MA Chidambaram Stadium to ensure it is filled to capacity of 50,000. Shah Rukh Khan, not surprisingly, is ahead of the pack in using Bollywood to ensure Eden Gardens has its capacity crowd of 88,000. Besides his own charismatic presence he is trying to get bongshell Bipasha Basu and Rani Mukerji to be in the stadium to cheer Red Chillies Entertainment's Kolkata Knight Riders. So far Preity Zinta has resisted the temptation to give a filmi flavor to the Kings XI Punjab.

While there can be little doubt that the presence of popular film stars on the field and in promotional videos will snare viewer interest, it remains to be seen to what extent and for how long.