Sunny Leone will be ready to come down to Kochi or any other place like she did in the past week to spice up private functions again, if somebody is ready to offer a hefty fee of Rs 14 lakh besides two business class tickets and at least 10 bouncers to keep surging crowds at bay.
For celebrities, inaugural functions are a convenient way to earn quick money. There are many companies in India that specialize in celebrity event management services. If you want to invite Shah Rukh Khan or Sunny Leone to promote your product or top just cut ribbons, you need not to know him/her personally; all you need to do is find out the celebrity booking agency they are associated with.
From American president Donald Trump to Baahubali fame Rana Daggubati, many popular personalities are proud owners of such agencies. As elsewhere in the world, film stars are in huge demand in the ‘inauguration market’ in Kerala. There are megastars who won't settle for anything below Rs 30-40 lakh to attend a function.
Event management firms call the shots
There is a hilarious scene in the Mammootty-starrer hit film Kottayam Kunjachan. The hero promises the locals that he would get superstar Mohanlal to inaugurate his driving school, but in the end, he fools the villagers by bringing in a lesser-known actor. To escape the crowd’s wrath, he apologizes and claims that his plan was foiled by a director who refused to release the actor from the set.
No amount of cajoling or coaxing to attend a function can work with stars nowadays. Unless you approach them through celebrity management firms, it is quite impossible to hire them to appear at your event.
In the past, top stars used to attend inaugurations of only major jewellery outlets and textile showrooms. But today most of these business houses have own brand ambassadors for promoting their products. When a celebrity gets signed up as brand ambassadors, it will be clearly mentioned in the contract that apart from endorsing and promoting the products, he/she will be obliged to attend shop openings as well.
Earlier, stars who attended inaugural functions used to take home costly articles from the shops without paying the bill. As things are done in a very professional manner now, business houses do not have to deal with such uncouth behavior any longer.
According to sources in event management firms, Dulquer Salmaan is the most sought-after celebrity for inaugurations, although he is very choosy about endorsing a product. Another young star, Nivin Pauly, has so far refrained from becoming brand ambassador of any company. Nayanthara has been in the film industry for about ten years, but it was only recently she agreed to sign an endorsement contract with DTH operator TataSky.
Also read: You won’t believe how much Nayanthara charged for a 50-second ad
It is evident that celebs have become a key ingredient for sales promotion with the growth of mobile handset market. Sunny Leone was in Kochi for the launch of a new shop of a mobile phone retailer.
Keralites witnessed a similar marketing ploy when the Bobby Chemmanur Group used legendary footballer Diego Maradona’s popularity to endorse their brand a couple of years ago.
Until recently, actress Kavya Madhavan had been the most valued celebrity in the ‘inauguration market.' Today it is Honey Rose and Namitha Pramod who enjoy that status.
On the national scene, sportspersons have always been in demand for inaugural functions. Among Malayalee sportsmen, C.K. Vineeth tops the list.
Of course, one way to draw consumer attention to a new business or product is to hire a celebrity and host a grand opening celebration. But today PR agencies do much more than that. Before the inauguration, videos of the celebrity endorsing the products would be circulated on social media. Putting up cut-outs, flex-boards and banners carrying his/her photos in every nook and cranny is another strategy.
The PR agency behind Sunny Leone’s whirlwind tour to Kochi had made the maximum use of social networking sites to promote the event. Several days have passed since the event, but web portals and social media are still abuzz with the stories of her visit. Sunny, who has about 2.5 lakh followers on Twitter, tweeted thrice about her Kochi visit in a span of two days.
The tail end: Apart from attending inaugurations, there are celebrities who are ready to grace your weddings if you shell out huge sums. This also is facilitated by celebrity management firms.
A funny incident occurred at such a wedding. A film star, hired to preen and pose at the function, hugged the groom’s father and told him that it had been a long time since they last met. Though the dialogue was part of the contract, he goofed up by addressing the groom’s father by a wrong name. According to the gossip mills, the actor had to pay the price for the mistake as the celebrity management company cut down the charge fixed for the dialogue!