How Lalit Modi brought Bollywood and cricket together

Brut India

Lalit Modi, the founder of the Indian Premier League, talked about his two most important ingredients for building a multi-billion dollar franchise.

Transcript

00:00Two things worked in India, Bollywood and Cricket.

00:02How do you combine the two?

00:03You can't take Bollywood into the field.

00:05That's a pajama game.

00:06So why not make a Shah Rukh Khan owner team?

00:08How did IPL happen?

00:09I always had this thing that we should own.

00:12Because I wanted to own a league.

00:15But now, I no longer can own a league.

00:18Because I'm part of the BCCI.

00:21I knew there was so much money sitting on the table

00:25outside of National Cricket.

00:28Two people made money in those days.

00:30ICC and BCCI.

00:33And ICC made money only based upon India Cricket.

00:36India is very passionate about cricket.

00:40But they're only passionate about Indian cricket.

00:42They don't care a damn about anything else.

00:45The person in the village doesn't care a damn.

00:47He wants Sachin Tendulkar.

00:50He wants Kapil Dev.

00:50He wants Vishal Tendulkar.

00:52He wants to see Harbhajan Singh's spin.

00:55He wants to see gully cricket.

00:57I knew there was a burning desire

01:01outside the 110 days India played international cricket.

01:04The rest of the year, what do people do?

01:05It's a daytime sport.

01:07I understood in the entertainment industry,

01:08two things worked in India.

01:10Bollywood, cricket.

01:13Nothing else.

01:15Why not find a way to combine the two?

01:17How do you combine the two?

01:18You can't take Bollywood into the field.

01:20That is pajama game.

01:23You need to keep it real.

01:26I came up with the idea.

01:27And I started seeing international sports

01:30where celebrities would attend the basketball game.

01:33And the media would go crazy.

01:34The fans would go crazy.

01:36Why not make Shah Rukh Khan own a team?

01:39Make the who-do of India own teams.

01:42How did you convince Shah Rukh Khan to buy a team?

01:45Because you said it was important for him to buy a team.

01:48Because you wanted him to buy a team

01:50so that stadiums can be filled.

01:51Not only stadiums can be filled,

01:54women and children will come into the game.

01:59So I said to Shah Rukh,

02:01you need to own a cricket team.

02:03He says, Lalit Bhai, I don't know what cricket is.

02:06You know me.

02:07He had a football with him, I remember that day.

02:08And he and Aryan were kicking football,

02:11playing football, kicking it up,

02:13putting it on my head, putting it on my shoulder.

02:15I said, that's amazing, okay.

02:16Can we just concentrate on cricket?

02:18He said, I don't know anything about cricket.

02:19If you tell me you're investing, I trust you.

02:23I will invest.

02:24But you have to hold my hand and show us how to do it.

02:28And I said, that's good.

02:31If that's the case, will you definitely attend?

02:33I said, yes.

02:34I said, you have to be present everywhere.

02:35Thought about a minute.

02:36You know I have film commitments.

02:37I said, definitely bigger than your films.

02:38Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

02:40Started laughing.

02:41I said, definitely bigger than anything.

02:43If you say so, in a joking manner,

02:45trying to contain his laughter

02:50and that I'm really dreaming big.

02:54This was in December, 2007.

02:59In principle, he said, okay, fine.

03:02I will come in.

03:05And that was it.

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