Say games based on Bollywood actors have longer shelf life than movie-based ones
Say games based on Bollywood actors have longer shelf life than movie-based onesThe gaming industry has decided to increase celebrity participation in online games so it can scale new heights.
The recent successes of celebrity games with stars like Salman Khan, Bipasha Basu, Neetu Chandra and Sameera Reddy have inspired this change. Maruti Shanker, managing director of 7seas Technology that tasted success with their Neetu Chandra game 'Neetu the Alien Killer', says, "Movie games don't have much of a life.
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A game based on Salman and his dogs Myson and Myjaan |
But games based on the celebrities are evergreen. We are working on few more projects with stars, but can only disclose names once the deal is done."
Arun Mehra, chief marketing officer of Zapak.com that has cashed in on Salman Khan's and Bipasha Basu's popularity, agrees, "The life of a celebrity-based game is more than a movie-based game. Now we're working on more such projects." He adds, "Among our celebrity games, Salman is still number one, Bipasha comes next and Rakhi Ka Swayamvar, a game based on Rakhi Sawant's show, is on number three. All three games have been played by millions of gamers."
G T Peter Whitin, director operations of Chennai-based gaming company Netaxis IT Solutions, says, "Of course, the demand is there, but our company focuses on foreign celebs because majority of the gamers who log into our site are from abroad."
What it costs
Mehra says a celeb-based game costs about Rs 8-10 lakh, excluding the fee charged by the star, which depends on their current market value. "We paid Rs 3 lakh to Chandra for 'Neetu the Alien Killer'. It varies from person to person on the basis of their popularity," added Shanker.
'Rakhi ka Swayamvar is fun'
Aditya Acharya, a Bandra-based gamer, says, "I play most celebrity-based games but I like Rakhi Ka Swayamvar most as I am a bachelor and it's fun."
