Bollywood Biggies Got Game

The latest thing to happen in the world of wireless gaming is the number of big and not so big Bollywood honchos making their presence felt.

There is the Badshah of Disco and bling 'Boppy Da' (Bappi Lahiri for the uninitiated) who is engaged on a new mission - to get back at the baddies who have robbed him of his jewels. The mobile game featuring the portly composer has been making tracks on the popularity charts in India and abroad. The game has him him stunning the villains, with his high-voltage guitar.

Then there is also southside actor Madhavan, who is busy evading the paparazzi in 'Run Maddy Run'.

Already in the pipelines are Hrithik Roshan (in a Krrish game) and Bollywood badshah Shahrukh Khan (Don).

Gaming centering around Bollywood celebrities has been around for some time but now market forces are swinging the other way with actors wooing gaming companies, signing contracts, negotiating royalty money which on an average is 10 to 20 per cent of the download revenues.

Gaming is expected to grow annually and actors are queuing up to get featured. A well crafted and hyped mobile game spreads through the personal network of friends,

colleagues and business contacts abroad. The bigger canvas is that of simultaneous releases of Hindi films in foreign countries with promotional and ground events with the stars. For old actors it's a better and faster way to keep them alive amongst the youth.

Games are also being designed on brash heroes like Salman Khan and Bollywood bombshells Priyanka Chopra and Bipasha Basu are hopping aboard the bandwagon as well. Sameera Reddy who's got her own share of adulation, is getting into another mobile game with 'Sameera Acquadventure'.

It has become a greater vehicle for brand visibility. A few hundred downloads per day will do wonders for star image. There can't be a bigger lure for actors having a multi-faceted image, which leads them to actively participate and even lend concepts during the scripting stage.

By Nidhi Jain