Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Celebrity endorsers are now recognising that they have opportunities extending well beyond the fees that they garner from corporates. Kapil Dev, arguably India’s most savvy cricketer, is getting to go where no celebrity has gone before. Given the fact that the brand new bike from India’s currently most aggressive two wheeler company, Kinetic Engineering is called the Boss and has Dev as its celebrity brand ambassador, it is not entirely unthinkable that the man now has bigger ambitions. But making the leap from being just the ‘pretty star face’ that helped launch a tough bike, to becoming a strategic investor in the company is a long shot. Given that the company itself has a new ladyboss Sulajja Firodia, who is willing to consider outside the box solutions, this may be a good time for Kapil to strike a deal to become a Boss at Kinetic. Dev’s route is slightly different from the one that his fellow cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, has chosen to tread. In Sachin’s case, the approach seems to have been dictated by his tycoon mentor,the late Michael Mascarehnas (who himself was assisted by fellow tycoon and buddy Hari Bhartia in developing this concept of business beyond the boundaries of sport) and involves at the first stage opening some Tendulkar-branded restaurants. Which route is going to work in the future is something that both cricketers still have to discover for themselves. What is certain is that these are sportsmen who have graduated from the ranks of humble players into tycoons in the making. Given the fact that some of them have better net worth than many businessmen, currently in the circuit, there’s no reason why they should not be able to make the grade.
(Dilip Cherian, runs a public affairs firm Perfect Relations. He is an economy watcher and tycoon tracker. None of the people he writes about are his clients. Your insider tales are welcome at dilipcherian@now-india.net.in)
