21 September,2012 08:11 AM IST | | The Centre stage Team
The only person one could really think of is Virgin Group's founder Sir Richard Branson. Well, Country Club India Ltd's (CCIL) Chairman Y Rajeev Reddy has just done that. Reddy, who pioneered the clubbing revolution in India, recently skydived off a plane in Dubai at over 13,500 feet for his company's new TV commercial! CS found out more about the commercial:
Who: Y Rajeev Reddy
What: On his skydiving experience
Promotional Feature/Editor: Janhavi Samant
What a rush!
Describing the experience, Reddy explained, "I had no fear. I felt the adrenalin rush, took a deep breath and dived with my trademark thumbs up sign. It was extremely chilly and windy and for the first 60 seconds, it was a free fall at a speed of over 200 kmph." Reddy who is into fitness and extreme sports, has also indulged in rock climbing, scuba diving and white water rafting. But according to him, this was an altogether mind blowing experience. "It took me over seven minutes to touch the ground. You can feel your face going out of shape," Reddy revealed.
Shooting the commercial
The skydive commercial was directed by Mani Shankar, who had flown in two cameramen from London specifically for the shoot. Shankar, who has done over 1,500 commercials and some Hindi movies including Rudraksh, Knock Out and Tango Charlie states, "I was not sure till the last moment whether Rajeev would really dive. Thinking of skydiving and actually doing it are two different things altogether. Rajeev's passion for the company and brand is infectious."
Card with benefits
CCIL's skydive TV commercial promotes âBillionaire Cards' with the tag line of âLive Life To The Fullest'. These cards are CCIL's latest offerings and come in three variants. Apart from the usual clubbing benefits, the Billionaire Club Gold Card offers seven nights of free holidays for 30 years and is in the range of ' 1.3 lakhs to ' 1.8 lakhs. The Billionaire Club Premium Card offers seven nights of free holidays for 10 years and is priced between Rs 90,000 and Rs 1.3 lakhs. The new products follow the success of Billionaire Club Card that was launched earlier this year at an inaugural price of Rs 59,000. Over the past three years, CCIL has spent nearly Rs 750 crores on creating and consolidating a pan India network as also its Middle Eastern foray. CCIL entered Dubai in 2008 by taking over an existing luxury boutique hotel for 165 million AED (Rs 175 crores). CCIL currently has operations in Abu Dhabi, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka and Thailand. It owns and operates over 55 clubs across India and abroad and has over three lakh members.u00a0
