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Bollywood and the Indian Premier League (IPL): The political

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DOI: 10.1080/01292986.2011.580851

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Bollywood and the Indian Premier

League (IPL): the political economy of
Bollywood's new blockbuster
a a
Azmat Rasul & Jennifer M. Proffitt
a
Communication, Florida State University, Tallahassee, USA
Published online: 26 Jul 2011.

To cite this article: Azmat Rasul & Jennifer M. Proffitt (2011) Bollywood and the Indian
Premier League (IPL): the political economy of Bollywood's new blockbuster, Asian Journal of
Communication, 21:4, 373-388, DOI: 10.1080/01292986.2011.580851

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 Asian Journal of Communication
Vol. 21, No. 4, August 2011, 373
388

ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Bollywood and the Indian Premier League (IPL): the political economy
of Bollywood’s new blockbuster
Azmat Rasul and Jennifer M. Proffitt*

Communication, Florida State University, Tallahassee, USA

(Received 18 November 2010; final version received 9 April 2011)
Downloaded by [Florida State University] at 08:45 03 September 2013

This paper interrogates the interrelationships between sports and popular culture
to facilitate an understanding of the converging areas between political and
economic forces and cultural practices operative in the global marketplace. Using
a critical political economy approach, it examines the innovatively formatted and
media-friendly Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament and the Bolly-
wood stars who are involved as owners and promoters of the league. The profit-
generating capacity of cricket has increased the interest of the corporate sector
and the entertainment industries, resulting in the spectaclization, commercializa-
tion, and corporatization of the popular sport.
Keywords: political economy; Bollywood; sports

In 2010, cricket fans in the Indian sub-continent anxiously awaited the third edition
of the Indian Premier League (IPL). The gala was staged in India in March 2010,
attracting the attention of cricket lovers around the globe due to the involvement of
Bollywood superstars and the best players selected from major cricket-playing
nations. The inaugural ceremony of the third edition of the IPL incorporated a
spectacular extravaganza of lights and music and featured Indian and international
showbiz celebrities including Deepika Padukone of Bollywood, Ali Campbell of
UB40, Lionel Richie, and the artists of Bjorn Again (‘IPL III Kicks Off,’ 2010). A
laser show coupled with A.R. Rehman’s Oscar winning song, ‘Jai Ho,’ engrossed the
crowd and millions of viewers watching the show at home. Similarly, in 2009, more
than 150 international cricketers participated in the second edition of the IPL in
South Africa in company with Bollywood heartthrobs including Shah Rukh Khan,
Preity Zinta, and Shilpa Shetty, who are also the co-owners of the Kolkata Knight
Riders, Kings XI Punjab, and Rajasthan Royals, respectively, three out of 10 teams
playing in the league. To maintain the buoyant atmosphere and interest of the
audience, a Miss Bollywood South Africa competition was introduced with
contestants drawn from fans attending matches. Bollywood stars were also present
in the cricket grounds during the matches to cheer for their teams and entertain the
crowd.
India would become the center of attention for cricket fans again in spring 2011
as two grand cricket tournaments enthralled approximately 1.5 billion cricket fans.
India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh hosted the Cricket World Cup 2011, followed by

*Corresponding author. Email: jproffitt@fsu.edu

ISSN 0129-2986 print/ISSN 1742-0911 online
# 2011 AMIC/SCI-NTU
DOI: 10.1080/01292986.2011.580851
http://www.informaworld.com
 374 A. Rasul and J.M. Proffitt

the fourth season of the IPL in India in April 2011. Due in large part to the large
number of audience members watching the game on television, such matches are a
marketer’s dream. Vijay Singh of Fox Studios argued that the best way to increase
viewership and ‘strike a chord with the nation’ is through the popular sport of cricket
(Dubey, 2011, para. 2). Fox Studios, for example, launched the title song of its star-
studded movie, Dum Maro Dum, during a crucial India
South Africa game held in
Nagpur on 12 March 2011. These mega sporting events have spawned a synergistic
bond among sports channels, the entertainment industry, showbiz celebrities, and
corporations.
New forms of cricket have been introduced for the last four decades to maintain
the interest of the audience in the game and, in recent years, to make the game more
media-friendly. In India, the innovatively formatted IPL tournament was created in
2008 by Lalit Modi, one of the most influential figures in the management of the
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Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Modi engineered a seven-fold increase
in the revenues of BCCI between 2005 and 2008 (Wade, 2008). Modi had also been
involved in striking business deals with global media giants such as Walt Disney
Pictures and ESPN in 1993 and 1994 (Singh, 2010). Thus, the IPL was bound to be a
global media-friendly enterprise, one that bloggers compare to the US Super Bowl in
terms of audiences and increased advertising dollars.
The development of the IPL includes heavy investments flowing from Bollywood
stars, and India’s rise as the financial epicenter of the game is reflective of its
significance as a major market for the consumer economy. India has emerged as the
new ‘cricket capital’ with its huge market possessing the capacity to pull audiences
and generate profits. This phenomenon is inherently related to the forces of global
capitalism and has radically affected the structure of the game globally. The IPL-
Bollywood alliance is a new synergistic mechanism that is likely to attract the
attention of global entertainment corporations, some of which are already present in
the Indian commercial entertainment industry. This paper interrogates the inter-
relationships between sports and popular culture to facilitate an understanding of
the converging areas between political and economic forces and cultural practices
operative in global marketplace, especially within the entertainment industry. It
argues that through the IPL and Bollywood’s increasing symbiotic relationship,
cricket has become largely mediated and corporatized, changed to fit the needs of
media corporations, advertisers, sponsors, and owners rather than fans.

Sports-media complex: political economy of the sports spectacle

Sports have affected the social, political, and economic interests of various
competing groups at regional, national, and international levels. The sports industry
has globalized rapidly in the past few decades, capturing the attention of large
business and media corporations interested in investing in sports and the media that
cover sports. Due to their influence, the sports and entertainment industries work as
chief driving forces behind transnational capitalism (Belanger, 2009). Gruneau and
Whitson (1997) affirm that these industries have played a central role in generating
consent on modern doctrines of free trade, privatization, deregulation of markets,
and open competition. Jhally (1989) has termed the correlation between sports and
media as the sports-media complex, as sports have become not only largely mediated,
as most sports viewers watch the games on television or, increasingly, on their
 Asian Journal of Communication 375

computers, but they have also become heavily dependent upon revenues from the
media, such as broadcasting rights, for ‘their very survival and their present
organizational structure’ (p. 78).
In the postmodern capitalism era, a symbiosis between these culture industries
plays a significant role due to their rapid growth, popular appeal, and omnipresence
(Belanger, 2009). The production, distribution, and consumption patterns of cultural
products have created new arenas of political struggle not much different from the
traditional resistance to the forces of exploitation and domination (Gruneau &
Whitson, 1997). Various scholars have studied how sports have been turned into a
spectacle through a process of corporatization and commercialization (e.g., Belanger,
2009; Coakly, 1994; Gruneau & Whitson, 1997; Lowes, 2004; Neale, 1964; Silk, 2002;
Wenner, 2003). Debord (1967) defines spectacle as the ‘moment when the commodity
has attained the total occupation of social life’ (p. 42). By converting sporting events
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into a spectacle, major corporations compete for profits, growth, and control over
the market. Various scholars have also analyzed how sporting events have been used
by city and national governments in the United States, Australia, Canada, China,
and Malaysia to promote their economic, ideological, and political interests (e.g.,
Belanger, 2009; Lowes, 2004; Silk, 2002; Wenner, 2003).
Nauright (2004) argues that important sporting events are driving developed as
well as developing countries toward an ‘event-driven’ economy because events such
as World Cups, the Olympic Games, and other regional tournaments are serving as
spectacular commodities that attract large audiences. In these countries, national and
transnational corporations are interested in sports because tournaments provide
them an opportunity to introduce new products to millions of spectators worldwide
(Coakly, 1994). Corporate sponsors have exploited global sporting events such as
the Olympics by establishing a relationship between their corporate image and the
Olympic ideals of peace and friendship (Larson & Park, 1993). Indeed, for the
Olympics, marketing has become a central element (Whannel, 2009). In another
example, TNS Media Intelligence reported that in the years spanning 1988 to 2007,
the US National Football League’s Super Bowl generated nearly US$2 billion in
advertising revenue; the top five advertisers (Anheuser Busch, Pepsico, General
Motors, Time Warner, and Disney) accounted for US$659 million, or 36% of the
total advertising expenditures (TNS Media Intelligence, 2008).
The processes of the commodification of sport has also deepened the chasm
between rich and poor nations as economically disadvantaged societies lack
infrastructures and resources to organize sporting events as well as a vibrant media
through which a large audience could be attracted. Further, a new dimension to the
commercialization of sports has been added through the operations of advertisers,
sports media, and sports organizations: domination and manipulation through
business administration (Andrews, 2009; Bourdieu, 1998; Whannel, 2009). Not only
are sports commodified, but audiences are also sold as commodities as advertisers
buy audience attention from television programmers to promote their products
(Smythe, 1977). Thus, the involvement of commercial forces has turned sports into a
lucrative business requiring heavy capital investments and generating economic
gains.
The struggle for control over media, popular culture, and sports has been a
hallmark of post-industrial capitalism, and sports spectacle is a multidimensional
concept that should be considered as more than a series of popular events (Hall,
 376 A. Rasul and J.M. Proffitt

1981). Capitalist societies heavily depend on cultural products, including sports, as

they are directly linked to the performance of the economy by providing new avenues
for growth, dynamism, profit, and control (Andrews, 2009). However, the involve-
ment of showbiz stars in the spectacle, the sports business (owning franchises),
and the promotion of sporting events remains an underemphasized area of study
even though mainstream culture is largely defined by Hollywood, Bollywood, and
transnational media conglomerates. Commercial and cultural forces have become
inseparable in the capitalist system; thus, culture is difficult to analyze sans an
examination of the economic conditions of cultural production (Whannel, 2009).
According to Belanger (2009), a political economist ‘should consider sport as a
practice formed in articulation with various indeterminate economic, political and
ideological forces and seek to clarify the possibilities of sport as politicized cultural
form and a space for struggle over popular culture’ (p. 63). Therefore, the synergistic
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relationships among big business, the IPL, and Bollywood need to be analyzed for a
better understanding of the convergence of sport stardom, corporate culture, and
showbiz celebrities.

Deviating from the tradition: the limited overs (one-day) cricket

Cricket has been one of the most popular sports in former colonies of Great Britain.
Until the 1970s, the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), based at Lord’s in London,
was considered the headquarters of all types of cricket (Kitchin, 2008). However, the
central position enjoyed by the MCC and ECB (England and Wales Cricket Board)
in the world of cricket lost some significance with the rise of the game in the
subcontinent (Winder, 2005) and the introduction of limited overs cricket since
1970s. In 2003, a novel idea in cricket was pioneered with the introduction a
sensational type of limited overs game, named Twenty-20 or T-20, which resulted in
the influx of new leagues in different countries. To be recognized, a league requires
formal approval of the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the controlling
authority in its respective country (Kitchin, 2008).
The ascendance of new forms of cricket in early 1970 (one-day) and early 2000
(T-20) could be attributed to the diminishing interest of cricket fans in traditional
five-day and three-day matches. With escalating pressures of urbanization, the
cricket authorities were finding it hard to persuade people to visit stadiums and
watch test (five-day) matches. Revenues began to decline in early 1960s, and national
cricket organizations were having trouble generating funds to support the game. To
attract cricket lovers back to stadiums, the idea of one-day cricket was introduced,
and a limited overs cricket tournament (the Gillette Cup) was organized for the first
time in England in 1963 among local county teams (Grime, 2007). At the
international level, the first limited overs (one-day) match was played between
traditional rivals, England and Australia, in 1971 when a test match was abandoned
due to bad weather conditions (McFarline, 1977). Cricket fans supported the new
format because limited overs (one-day) matches were thrilling, result-oriented, and
usually organized on weekends when people could go the grounds to enjoy the game.
Consequently, the first one-day cricket tournament (World Cup) was held in England
in 1975 and resulted in increasing appeal of the one-day cricket format and
commercial revenues to a scale never witnessed before (Kitchin, 2008). The Cricket
World Cup continues to be a big commercial success, and it is organized regularly in
 Asian Journal of Communication 377

different cricket playing nations involving major national and international business
corporations in the event as sponsors.
International one-day cricket took an interesting turn in 1976 when the
Australian Cricket Board denied an Australian television tycoon, Kerry Packer,
the right to telecast a summer test series on his television channel. Packer objected
and instead offered attractive contracts to the leading international players to
participate in his tournament called World Series Cricket (Haigh, 2007; Kitchin,
2008; McFarline, 1977). Starting in 1977, the Series continued for three years and
was terminated in 1979 when Packer’s Channel 9 obtained the rights to broadcast
summer matches with a new triangular one-day match series. Packer was successful
in crafting his World Series Cricket into a spectacle by introducing three major
changes in the one-day game format: instead of traditional white uniforms, players
wore color uniforms for the first time; latest video technology and multiple cameras
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were used; and a day/night schedule using lights was introduced to attract more
crowds (Kitchin, 2008). This innovative, television-friendly approach affected the
organization of limited overs cricket in the days to come.
As access to satellite broadcasting increased in South Asia, it became an
attractive region to stage multination cricket events because South Asia, with its
more than one billion cricket-mad population, had the potential to provide larger
profits to cricket authorities, television channels, and corporations sponsoring these
events (Gupta, 2004). A number of media outlets also started using cricket to
produce attention-grabbing content in late 1990s (Bose, 2006; Kitchin, 2008; Mehta,
2007). Major media corporations including News Corporation (News Corp),
Disney’s ESPN, and Zee TV of India initiated sports channels in the region, and
cricket-related content enjoyed a manifest domination over other sports. Various
channels vied for broadcasting rights of cricket tournaments and, as such, the fees
increased dramatically (Bose, 2006). To attain this kind of money, broadcasters need
to attract a large audience willing and able to spend money not just on cricket, but
also on the sponsors and the advertisements shown during mediated games.
After 2003, twenty-overs cricket or T-20 tournaments had proliferated at the
national and international levels. Such tournaments were held in Pakistan and South
Africa in 2004, followed by the Stanford 20/20 in West Indies in 2005 and the IPL in
2008. West Indies hosted the third T-20 World Cup, entertaining cricket fans across
the globe in April
May 2010. However, out of all these tournaments, the commercial
success of the IPL is startling. The league has drawn top international players and, as
of 2010, three tournaments had been held successfully. According to Nayar (2010)
for Forbes India: ‘At least seven IPL teams will record a profit in IPL 3
compare
that with the 18-year-old English Premier League (EPL), where only 11 teams out of
20 registered an operating profit in 2008, and after the [economic] downturn, that
dropped to seven’ (para. 7). With 10 teams organized in a franchise pattern, the IPL
is so far the richest and most systematically controlled cricket tournament in the
world (Kitchin, 2008). Nevertheless, the new brand of cricket has received criticism
and applause from different quarters. Traditionalists do not consider it a serious
game and contend that T-20 cricket has destroyed the spirit of the game and its
decorum (Akram, 2010). Advocates of the new format argue that cricket should
change with the changing mood of the crowd. According to them, test match cricket
is important, but it does not earn the revenue necessary for the development and
maintenance of sports as spectacle.
 378 A. Rasul and J.M. Proffitt

The Indian Premier League

As noted, the idea of the IPL was pioneered by the BCCI in 2008. Lalit Modi, a
business tycoon and Vice President of BCCI, was appointed as the Commissioner of
the league and turned IPL into one of the most financially viable projects in the
history of cricket. IPL teams consist of franchises named after Indian cities and
states and are owned by media companies, Bollywood superstars, and corporate
moguls. Currently, three IPL franchises (Kings IX Punjab, Rajasthan Royal, and
Kolkata Knight Riders) are owned by Bollywood stars; five teams (Mumbai Indians,
Royal Challengers Banglore, Chennai Super Kings, Delhi Daredevils, and Kochi
Tuskers Kerala) are owned by Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries, Vijay Mallya
of United Brewery (UB) Group, N. Sirinivasan of India Cements, G.M. Rao of
GMR Group, and Kochi Cricket Private Limited, respectively. The remaining two
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teams (Deccan Chargers and Pune Warriors) are owned by influential media groups
the Deccan Chronicle and Sahara India Pariwar (‘Big Business,’ 2008; Smith, 2010).
The Reliance Group and UB Group also have stakes in media in India and the
United States. For example, Vijay Mallya of UB Group owns Marinscope
community newspapers in California (Smith, 2010). As such, the IPL is a glaring
example of synergistic strategies used by transnational corporations to increase
revenues and maintain their control over the means of production through
interlocking of directorships, joint business ventures, and concentration of owner-
ship.
The IPL has also introduced a host of revolutionary changes in the structure of
the game. It initiated an auction and transfer system of players involving hefty
amounts of money, replacing the traditional region-based teams. According to
The Telegraph, Modi, ‘sold naming rights to the tournament to real-estate
conglomerate DLF for £27.7 million. His television deal with Sony was worth
£555 million and the sale of the eight franchises totaled £401.7 million’ (Hoult, 2008,
para. 16). The league has also provided an opportunity for players to earn an
extraordinary amount of money never witnessed before in the history of cricket
tournaments. As of early 2010, 10 players signed contracts with various IPL teams
worth more than US$1 million each for one season, which lasts for merely five weeks
per year. Similarly, the IPL format is immensely popular among sports channels. For
example, before the start of third edition of the IPL in 2010, the Indian Cricket
Board made US$1.75 billion by selling broadcast rights (‘All You Wanted to Know,’
n.d.). Involvement of big money, the film industry, and celebrity consortiums has
turned the IPL into a trend-setter in the world of cricket, and its brand value is
estimated to be nearly US$2 billion (Ryder & Madhavan, 2009).
The IPL signified a tremendous transformation in cricket with its commercial
success and involvement of showbiz celebrities. Contrary to the traditional five-day
(test) matches, the IPL follows the faster pattern of limited overs cricket. It has
successfully adopted the T-20 format in which a match lasts for three hours. The
shorter time span attracts broadcasters and advertisers who have found IPL matches
a perfect fit for prime-time television. The first year of its existence brought US$1
billion in broadcast revenues alone (Mustafa, 2009). In this way, the IPL has
transmuted the once elitist five-day test cricket into a game that attracts a larger fan
base via broadcasting. Its commercial success could be gauged from the fact that in
2008, the IPL captured 9.5% of the Indian television market compared to soap
 Asian Journal of Communication 379

operas and reality shows that made up 5% of the market, reflecting the affection of
South Asians for the game (Sharma, 2009).
The global organization of cricket has been affected by the IPL. For example, the
first edition of the IPL overlapped with the English season, and the England and
Wales Cricket Board (ECB) did not allow many players to participate in the
tournament. The English players were dismayed at the decision as the disapproval of
the IPL by the ECB deprived cricketers of lucrative contracts to be had in the richest
cricket tournament in the world. Accordingly, cricketers in other countries pressured
their governments to reorganize national tournaments and international matches
and allow them to benefit from the ‘IPL window’ (Mustafa, 2009). As such, the IPL
has also reversed the flow of capital and expertise. A couple of decades ago,
cricketers had to go to England to play for different counties to gain experience and
financial rewards. However, the economic growth in former colonies has resulted in a
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counter flow of capital and cricket labor (Appadurai, 1996). Cricket leagues are
proliferating in South Asia, Australia, South Africa, and West Indies, where players
can test their mettle and make a fortune for themselves. India, being an emerging
economic power with a large middle class, has assumed a unique position among
cricket playing nations in large part due to the millions of spectators willing to spend
money not only on attending matches but also on tourism, shopping, and other
consumerist practices following the neoliberal economic policies of the Indian
government. The economic boom in India has altered the face of Indian cricket, and
spectators from assorted strata of society can enjoy cricket on television screens as
well as in stadiums in all major towns of India (Majumdar, 2004). Tournaments such
as the IPL have diffused televised cricket in the remotest rural areas of India and its
South Asian neighbors where fans assemble at local tea houses to watch cricket
thrillers while poverty-stricken youth plays cricket in the streets.
Beyond doubt, the IPL has been instrumental in transforming the international
cricket economy in favor of emerging cricket centers such as India. It has also
generated interest among Indian entrepreneurs to invest in the game, and the new
format interspersed with entertainment content has enhanced its appeal manifold.
Cricket has been tailored to the televisual market that provides an excellent
opportunity to advertisers for product placement. Investments flowing from Bolly-
wood quarters increased the interest of a broad range of viewers enjoying not only
the television-friendly game but also the music and dance with their favorite stars.
Thus, cricket has been spectaclized and commodified under the influence of
corporate giants interested in profiteering at the expense of audiences that serve as
eyeballs sold to the advertisers without their consent (Smythe, 1977).

The Bollywood-IPL nexus

Indeed, due to its distribution technology, broadcast media have transformed sports
into a spectacle, whereas the movie industry lacked the capacity to directly bring
sports to spectators’ homes (Goldlust, 1988). Conglomerates such as Disney, News
Corp, and Viacom addressed this deficiency by inserting clips from sporting events
into their products to attract audiences (Andrews, 2009) and purchasing sports
networks. For example, Rupert Murdoch, Chairman and CEO of News Corp, is a
staunch believer in the global appeal of sports and termed it the universal language
of entertainment (Miller, Lawrence, McKay, & Rowe, 2001). Media conglomerates
 380 A. Rasul and J.M. Proffitt

are interested in major sporting events throughout the world to expand their political
and economic clout. For media giants, emerging sports centers and promising sports
leagues are the key battlegrounds to maintain their supremacy and share in attractive
markets. Corporations like Viacom and News Corp are competing in South Asia to
monopolize the market (the second largest in the world) by using cricket and
Bollywood stars. For example, News Corp’s Star Plus was slated to produce the
CINTAA Awards (a Bollywood extravaganza) during the IPL’s third season in India.
Viacom’s TV channel, Colors, planned a series of reality shows including an IPL
celebrity party show; IPL Rockstars; a show with cricketers similar to the US stunt
show, Fear Factor; a contest show in grounds where IPL matches will be played; and
an IPL awards ceremony featuring Bollywood stars (Leahy, 2010). Colors has also
emerged victorious in obtaining a license from the IPL for US$130 million to utilize
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its brand for different TV programs (‘Colors,’ 2010). The popularity of cricket and
Bollywood in India and among Indian diaspora across the globe offers a profitable
opportunity for the Bollywood stars-turned-entrepreneurs to invest in the league.
Aamir Khan’s Lagaan (2001) could be considered as a pioneering effort to
combine cricket and nationalism to attract the attention of the Indian diaspora
and international markets. The movie won international acclaim for its profes-
sionalism in addition to promoting cricket in rural areas (Zehra, 2009). YouTube
is also used as a substitute for broadcast television as Indian diasporic
communities can now watch matches that they could not see otherwise. Beyond
doubt, in India, Bollywood is often treated as an obsession, and a synergistic
relationship between the industry and the IPL brings with it acceptance,
veneration, credibility, and tangible profits.
Realizing the popularity of IPL galas, top Bollywood stars promote forth-
coming movies and songs during cricket matches. Teams owned by non-
Bollywood entrepreneurs have been cashing in on the mesmeric appeal of
Bollywood heartthrobs as brand ambassadors, including top celebrities Katrina
Kaif and Deepika Padukune for the Royal Challengers Banglore; Kareena
Kapoor, Anil Kapoor (Slumdog Millionaire fame) and Hrithik Roshan for the
Mumbai Indians; Akshay Kumar for the Delhi Daredevils; and Hansika Motwani
for the Deccan Chargers. Star owners of IPL teams (Shahrukh Khan, Preity
Zinta, and Shilpa Shetty) have been present during all IPL seasons to support
their teams. For the fourth IPL season, Shah Rukh Khan will dance with
international music diva Shakeera to promote his team in a new music video
(Alvi, 2011). In another example, Anu Malik, a versatile music composer, created
music for the Mumbai Indians, the team owned by Mukesh Ambani, who was #7
on the Forbes 2009 World’s Billionaire list. The cricket-Bollywood nexus is a
neoliberal mechanism to market entertainment products and celebrities, which
produces increased profits by captivating televised audiences through the appeal of
cricket and Bollywood. For those who cannot afford to attend the star-studded
games or do not live in or near IPL cities, television becomes the vehicle through
which a broad spectrum of fans, particularly the ‘middle class’ with money to
spend, experiences the sport. The following paragraphs delineate the synergistic
relationship between Bollywood and the IPL and critically examine the capitalist
logic behind staging the spectacle of the IPL.
 Asian Journal of Communication 381

Kings XI Punjab and the Bollywood connection

Kings XI Punjab is one of three cricket teams in the IPL that has strong connections
with Bollywood. The team is co-owned by top Bollywood actress Preity Zinta, Ness
Wadia of Bombay Dying, Karan Paul of Apeejay Surendra Group, and Mohit
Burman. The Bollywood connection is also evident from the fact that renowned
Punjabi-speaking Indian pop star, Daler Mehandi, is the brand ambassador of the
team. The team was bought for US$76 million for 10 years by the business elite in a
country where poverty runs rampant. The team has a blend of experienced and
young cricketers drawn from all major cricket-playing nations in the world. Its
performance in the three editions of the tournament has been mixed; however, it has
been a center of attention of media and cricket fans due to Zinta’s sensational image
and star players from India and abroad. News broke in early 2010 that Hero Honda,
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India’s ‘premium manufacturer’ of motorized vehicles, had bought the Kings XI

Punjab for an astonishing US$260 million (‘Hero,’ 2010, para. 1). This was hailed as
unprecedented in economic and historic terms as a team has never been sold in the
short history of the IPL, except in the Rajasthan Royals’ experience when merely
12% shares were sold to Shetty and her husband. However, it was confirmed later
that the team had not been acquired by Hero Honda, and Zinta herself clarified her
commitment and involvement with the team on her Twitter page.
As Wenner (2003) has argued that corporate sponsors of sporting events and
sports leagues exploit the positive image of sports to further their business interests,
IPL teams are using Bollywood stars to achieve this objective. Zinta was appointed
as goodwill ambassador of United Nations’ program, UNAIDS, and decided that
her team, using red ribbons, would promote AIDS awareness during the 2010
edition of the IPL. Team management determined that 25% of the profits would be
donated to UNAIDS (Panda, 2010). Zinta declared that she, with her team, would
produce a PSA to spread useful information and awareness about AIDS, which is
affecting a sizable portion of population in India. While the importance of AIDS
awareness cannot be denied, cricket analyst Khalid Alvi (2010) argued that Kings
XI Punjab would earn both tangible and intangible benefits from the ‘humanitar-
ian’ gesture of the team at a moment when the third edition of the IPL was in full
swing in India.
But all is not well with Kings XI Punjab’s image. The franchise became entangled
in controversies that generated heated debate in the media. Allegedly, two
cheerleaders of the team, Ellesha Newton and Sherinne Anderson, were not allowed
to enter into a stadium because of their dark skin color (Ghai, 2008). The event
management firm, Wizcraft International Entertainment, denied the charges and
opted for a legal solution to the case. The franchise also had a conflict with Punjab
Police who wanted compensation for providing security to the team. However,
management of the Kings XI Punjab was not willing to fulfill its obligation by paying
the demanded amount (Bajwa, 2008). Alvi (2010) contends that the franchise’s denial
to pay was another strategy to gain media attention as conflict breeds news.
Despite incessant media coverage and association with Bollywood glamour,
Kings XI Punjab’s economic performance had not been as impressive as expected by
investors. Anil Srivastva, CEO of the franchise, argued that most of the IPL teams
did not make the kind of profits from the tournament they expected (Mukhopad-
hyay, 2010). He hoped that the franchise would reach a breakeven point by 2011.
 382 A. Rasul and J.M. Proffitt

Another official of the team’s management, Arvinder Singh, stated that the team was
spending around US$18 million on marketing and disbursing US$6.6 million to
players each year. The franchise was also struggling to attract the telecom sector to
sponsor the team; other sponsors of the team included Fly Emirates, Pepsi, Gulf Oil,
Reebok, and UB (‘Kings XI,’ 2010). According to India Broadband Forum, the
revenues earned by Kings XI Punjab in the first edition of the IPL were US$14.2
million, while the expenses incurred on the franchise fee and team management were
US$15.3 million (‘Revenue,’ 2008). Thus, the franchise had suffered a loss, which was
expected as the league was in its infancy in 2008. The third edition of the IPL was
expected to bring increased profits to all teams as the league found new sponsors. For
example, Google reached an agreement with the IPL committee for the online rights
to IPL content for two years. All 60 matches would be shown on YouTube, and
Google paid US$8.8 million for the right to do so (Zehra, 2009). Kings XI Punjab
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has yet to break even, due in part to legal problems, but a 93% stake in the team was
reportedly worth more than US$200 million in 2010, nearly three times more than
what was paid for the team in 2008 (‘Kings XI Punjab Up for Sale’, 2010).

Kolkata Knight Riders: King Khan’s appeal pulls profits

It has been suggested that there is no success in Hindi film industry sans sex or Shah
Rukh Khan (Salam, 2005). Khan, the king of Bollywood, co-owns Kolkata Knight
Riders with his wife, Gauri Khan, Bollywood actress Juhi Chawala, and her
husband, Jai Mehta. Their Red Chilies Entertainment bought the franchise for
US$75 million in 2008. According to the Web site brandfinance.com, Kolkata Knight
Riders as a brand was worth US$42.1 million by 2009, which is the highest as per
estimates of the brand evaluation companies (‘IPL,’ 2009). Although the team did
not perform well in the first edition of the IPL, it still managed to earn profits, in part
due to Khan’s prior relationships with sponsors such as Nokia and Tag Heuer
(Pande & Behl, 2008). The franchise has also been successful in attracting leading
players from the world of cricket. Unlike other teams, it is not supported by a brand
ambassador, as its association with Khan is sufficient to win the support of millions
of his fans. Khan’s star presence in the stadium not only enthralls spectators who
want their hero’s team to be crowned, but also results in increasing demand for the
sport. Bollywood stars’ association with the IPL increased viewership of the event as
the ratings went 50% above initial estimates by different media rating companies
(Alchemy, 2008; TAM Media Research, 2008). Thus, the IPL spectacle appears to be
working effectively for the corporate sector, Bollywood, and Indian Cricket Board.
Despite the goodwill enjoyed by Khan, Kolkata Knight Riders was also
entangled in controversies. For example, the difference of opinion between Khan
and team captain Sourav Ganguly on issues related to team selection and manage-
ment was scandalized in the media (‘All is Not Well,’ 2008; ‘No Rift,’ 2008). Khan
was accused of pressuring Ganguly to persuade the West Bengal Chief Minister not
to impose an entertainment tax on matches being played in Kolkata (‘All is Not
Well,’ 2008). The racist attitude of coaches also sparked a heated debate in the media.
However, the issues were resolved, and Kolkata Knight Riders improved their
performance in the second edition of the IPL by reaching the semi-finals.
Red Chilies Entertainment has emerged as a significant player in the showbiz
and sports industries. It produced a few mega-hits during the past few years and
 Asian Journal of Communication 383

planned to launch an Indian version of America’s Next Top Model in 2010 with
supermodel-turned-actress Bipasha Basu as the host. Wenner (2003) states that
media moguls own sports franchises and actively engage in sport leagues to captivate
audiences through monopoly over broadcasting rights; to maximize advertizing
revenue; and to use sports as a synergistic mechanism. For example, Ted Turner of
Time-Warner owned the Atlanta Braves baseball team, airing the team’s games on its
superstation and its cable networks. The positive image of sporting events and sports
leagues is exploited to further business agendas through synergistic strategies such as
the promotion of new films among fans of sports and showbiz stars; production of
video games; and expansion of fandom that brings more spectators to the cricket
grounds and movie theatres (Rowe, 2004). Red Chilies Entertainment has skillfully
enmeshed sports and entertainment products. For example, the plot of its production
Chak de India (2007) revolved around the game of field hockey, and the movie turned
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out to be the fourth top-grossing film in 2007 (Box Office India, 2007). The
popularity of sports in South Asia and the spectatorship of Bollywood work as a
viable economic synergistic arrangement, and Bollywood stars extract tangible and
intangible benefits from it.

Rajasthan Royals: Shilpa Shetty’s business acumen

Rajasthan Royals, the IPL champions in 2008, is a Jaipur-based franchise that
attracted leading cricket players from different countries. Being the least expensive
franchise in the league in 2008, Manoj Badale of the Emerging Media group acquired
it for US$67 million with investors including Lachlan Murdoch, Aditya Chellaram,
and Suresh Chellaram. Lachlan Murdoch, the eldest son of Rupert Murdoch, is also
a member of the board of directors of News Corp. As noted previously, in early 2009
Shilpa Shetty and her husband, Raj Kundra, acquired 11.7% shares of the franchise
for US$15.4 million. Bollywood and News Corp connections gave the franchise a
real boost in the sports market, and it earned US$7.5 million profits in 2009 with the
franchise valued at US$130 million (figure based on what Shetty paid for 12% of the
franchise) (Blakely, 2010). The Rajasthan Royals developed its association with
Bollywood at the beginning of the first IPL edition by involving Ila Arun, a
Bollywood singer, to sing the franchise anthem while Indrajit Nattoji of Blink
Pictures directed the promotional video. In this way, the team was able to benefit
from media management expertise of Lachlan Murdoch and the glamour of Shetty,
which transformed it into a successful business enterprise.
The involvement of Bollywood stars was an important factor for the increased
profits earned by IPL franchises. Shetty has been at the center of a number of
controversies that kept her in the headlines. She was the first celebrity from India to
participate in Celebrity Big Brother UK and ultimately won it. She made headlines
when news broke that she had been a target of the racist attitudes of several of her
housemates, winning the sympathies of fans around the world (Chakravartty &
Zhao, 2008). Another controversy arose when, during an AIDS awareness campaign
event in New Delhi, Richard Gere kissed Shetty, and extremist groups and offended
audience members sparked a controversy that generated a heated debate. Shetty’s
family was also accused of having ties to the Mumbai underworld and involved in
charges of extortion. Further, Shetty was accused of violating the Indecent
Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act 1986 and Young Persons (Harmful
 384 A. Rasul and J.M. Proffitt

Publications) Act 1956 in 2006 as she allowed ‘objectionable’ pictures to be printed in

a Tamil newspaper (Ahmed, 2006). Thus, Shetty’s persistent presence in headline
news was a vital factor for the popularity of the Rajasthan Royals and the IPL as
cultivation of celebrity culture and fandom are the chief sources of popularity and
profits for media organizations and advertisers (Van Zoonen, 2005).
However, the victory of Rajasthan Royals in 2008 and commercial success in both
IPL seasons did not merely depend on celebrity culture. The team’s performance in
2008 was impressive and, under the brilliant captaincy of Australian cricket wizard
Shane Warne, the team won the title and the US$1.2 million prize money. The
popularity of the IPL in general, and Rajasthan Royals in particular, bears testimony
to the fact that the ‘sports-media complex’ (Jhally, 1989) and its logical corollary
‘mediasport’ (Wenner, 2003) is a profitable business enterprise, subject to the logic of
modern technology-intensive capitalism ‘propelled by commercially mediated
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spectacles and circuitry’ (Andrews, 2009, p. 225; Dyer-Witheford, 1999). With the
involvement of Bollywood stars in IPL events, cricket has been turned into an
entertainment spectacle that represents its cultural economy and increasing
commodification of the sport in India.

Conclusion
Discussion in the preceding paragraphs suggests that the Bollywood connection and
celebrity involvement have converted an erstwhile sport into a ‘mediasport’ spectacle
(Wenner, 2003), which purveys investment opportunities having no parallels in recent
commercial activity in India. According to media reports, the IPL has a brand value
higher than that of Manchester United Football Club of the English Premier League
as its brand worth stands at US$4.13 billion (‘Indian Sports Minister,’ 2010). The
rapid growth of the IPL demonstrates the concentration of power and wealth in the
hands of a few and the appeal of star power. As noted, critical political economy
identifies patterns of production, distribution, and consumption of cultural products,
which are commodified and turned into a spectacle to promote dominant ideologies
and business interests of the elite (Flew, 2007; Mosco, 2009; Rowe, 2004; Wenner,
2003). However, commodification, spectaclization, and commercialization of events
like the IPL also create an opportunity for political economists to bring to light
disparities transpiring from the capitalistic logic of profiteering at the expense of the
working class and the ‘purity’ of sport. The game becomes the vehicle through which
increasingly global but also national commercial brands are launched and
maintained, particularly Bollywood stars as brands. With this proliferation of
advertising and brand loyalty comes an increase in the cost of products, an increase
that is regressive in nature as the poor is hit the hardest. Critical evaluation of the
interplay among corporate giants, media corporations, rich celebrities, and
corporatized sports leagues could lead to empowerment and consolidation of the
socio-political movements against exploitation (McChesney, 2008).
The critique on new forms of cricket such as T-20 is also taking a new turn as
critics are questioning the economic motives behind spectacular leagues such as the
IPL. For example, Indian Sports Minister M.S. Gill criticized the league in an
interview with CNN-IBN, stating that cricket had been turned into ‘an instrument of
business’ (‘Indian Sports Minister,’ 2010, para. 1). He said that the introduction of
 Asian Journal of Communication 385

new innovations in cricket was detrimental for the game as it was merely suitable for
prime-time television audiences. Indeed, the profit-generating capacity of cricket has
ensnared the interest of the corporate sector and the entertainment industry. And
investors are banking on Bollywood stars, for in the first season, Khan’s Knight
Riders and the team Shetty would become involved with, the Rajasthan Royals
(owned by Emerging Media), were the only two teams to turn a profit. Of the other
teams that year, Zinta’s Kings XI Punjab lost the least amount of money,
demonstrating in part the power and appeal of stars in terms of viewers, sponsor-
ships, and advertising (‘IPL
First Season,’ 2008).
This is not to say that the IPL is all glamour and glitz. For example, the third
edition of the IPL engendered controversies that threatened to overshadow the
allure of Bollywood due to stories of corruption running rampant among IPL
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management and the subsequent disgraceful ouster of Modi in December 2010.

The franchises of the two teams owned by Bollywood stars (Rajasthan Royals and
Kings IX Punjab) were terminated in October 2010 for breaching ownership
regulations; however, these teams were allowed to play in the fourth IPL edition
after a favorable verdict in the subsequent arbitration (‘Indian Premier League
Expels,’ 2010). The corruption problems also affected the Indian government, as
the State Minister for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor had to resign due to his
alleged involvement in the auction of Kochi Tuskers Kerala, one of the two new
additions to the IPL’s fourth season (Kumar, 2010). Despite the negative publicity,
the popularity of the league, both in terms of fans and advertisers, increases with
each season. Publicity of any kind keeps the league in the news and thus can
prove beneficial from a public relations standpoint.
Bollywood’s involvement in the IPL gala cultivates a huge mass of fans who
develop allegiances with the teams owned by their favorite stars and keeps them
captivated during the event (Gantz, 1981; Raney & Bryant, 2006; Wann, 1995;
Wenner, 2003). Transnational capitalistic interests grow in geometric progression
by using the ‘innocent appeal’ of sports, and concepts such as deregulation of
markets, competition, and free trade are popularized (Belanger, 2009). An
enmeshment of sports and entertainment industries makes the IPL one of the
most publically visible events and results in the diffusion of dominant economic
and political ideologies. The commercialization of popular culture in a post-
modernist era makes it heuristically significant for political economists by
providing an opportunity to examine the shifting arenas of political and economic
struggle from traditional class conflict to modern subtle and hegemonic
mechanisms of control (Belanger, 2009; Gruneau & Whitson, 1997). However, it
remains to be seen whether the ‘sports-media complex’ in India opens new and
qualitatively different vistas of struggle for economic and political empowerment.

Notes on contributors
Azmat Rasul is a Fulbright PhD student in the School of Communication, Florida State
University, USA.

Jennifer M. Proffitt is an associate professor in the School of Communication, Florida State

University, USA.
 386 A. Rasul and J.M. Proffitt

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