Bollywoodizing Cricket- Hindi Films & IPL Cricket- Dr Sony & Rohini

Handbook of Research on the Impact of Culture and Society on the Entertainment Industry

R. Gulay Ozturkİstanbul Commerce University, Turkey

A volume in the Advances in Media, Entertainment, and the Arts (AMEA) Book Series

Table of Contents

Foreword............................................................................................................................................ xxiv

Preface................................................................................................................................................. xxv

Section 1Entertainment, Culture, and Society

Chapter 1Transformation.of.Entertainment.Culture.throughout.Society.and.History............................................ 1

Ebru Karadogan Ismayılov, İstanbul Commerce University, TurkeyGozde Sunal, İstanbul Commerce University, Turkey

Chapter 2Leisure.and.Entertainment.as.a.Creative.Space-Time.Manifold.in.a.Post-Modern.World.................... 21

Nadezhda Nikolaevna Pokrovskaia, Saint Petersburg State University of Economics, Russia

Chapter 3Entertainment.and.Food.Tourism.in.the.Backdrop.of.Late.Modernity.and.a.Reflection.on.Turkey..... 39

Aysegul Kesimoglu, City University London, UK

Chapter 4Negotiating.Spirituality:.Commodification.of.Religious.Content.in.the.Entertainment.Industry......... 57

Ruly Darmawan, Bandung Institute of Technology, Indonesia

Chapter 5Concurrence.of.Sports.and.Entertainment.Industries:.Super.Bowl....................................................... 72

Guven Buyukbaykal, İstanbul University, TurkeyYildiray Kesgin, İstanbul University, Turkey

Chapter 6Bollywoodizing.Cricket!.A.Fascinating.World.of.Global.Sensibilities,.Entertainment.Revolution,.Cultural.Representation,.and.Economic.Stunts..................................................................................... 89

Sony Jalarajan Raj, St. Thomas University, USARohini Sreekumar, Monash University, Malaysia

Section 2Entertainment and Media

Chapter 7The.Understanding.of.Entertainment.in.Press.Enterprises.in.Turkey.................................................. 105

Cuneyt Binatli, İstanbul Commerce University, TurkeyGozde Sunal, İstanbul Commerce University, Turkey

Chapter 8An.Overview.on.Presentation.of.Entertainment.in.Newspapers’.Weekend.Supplements................... 122

Nihal Kocabay Sener, İstanbul Commerce University, Turkey

Chapter 9Entertainment.on.French.Television.................................................................................................... 145

Catherine Ghosn, Université Paul Sabatier, France

Chapter 10Transformation.in.Daytime.Television.Programs.in.Turkey.since.2000............................................. 161

Ece Karadogan Doruk, İstanbul University, Turkey

Chapter 11The.Past.as.a.Spectacle:.The.Magnificent.Century.............................................................................. 182

Selin Tüzün, Marmara University, TurkeyAygun Sen, Marmara University, Turkey

Chapter 12Rewarding.Work,.Representing.Work:.The.Serious.Side.of.Entertainment.in.Globalised.Award.Shows................................................................................................................................................... 203

Lukasz Swiatek, The University of Sydney, Australia

Chapter 13Globalization.and.the.Dynamics.of.Work.Markets.............................................................................. 225

Kristian Feigelson, Sorbonne University, France

Chapter 14User-Generated.Cinema:.A.New.Way.of.Consumer.Co-Creation?..................................................... 245

Theresa Steffens, Macromedia University for Media and Communication Naststraße 11, Germany

Thomas Döbler, Macromedia University for Media and Communication Naststraße 11, Germany

Chapter 15Historical.Epic.as.a.Genre.in.Popular.Turkish.Cinema....................................................................... 264

Ala Sivas Gulcur, Istanbul Commerce University, Turkey

Chapter 16Violence.and.Pornographic.Violence.as.a.Mass.Entertainment.Medium:.A.Study.on.Spartacus.Series.................................................................................................................................................... 278

M. Nur Erdem, İstanbul Kavram Vocational College, Turkey

Section 3Entertainment and Marketing

Chapter 17Leisure.Time.Marketing.in.the.Context.of.the.Entertainment.Industry.............................................. 296

Ozgur Cengel, İstanbul Commerce University, TurkeyYaman Oztek, Galatasaray University, Turkey

Chapter 18Experience.Marketing.at.Retail.Environments.................................................................................... 314

Gozde Oymen Kale, İstanbul Commerce University, TurkeyEbru Ulusoy, University of Maine, USA

Chapter 19Eatertainment:.The.New.Era.in.Lateral.Thinking.–.Issues.and.Competing.Trends.in.Retailing........ 332

D. Zeynep Bayazıt Şahinoğlu, İstanbul Commerce University, TurkeyFigen Yıldırım, İstanbul Commerce University, Turkey

Chapter 20Customer.Responses.to.Arts.Festivals:.The.Effects.of.Relationship.Marketing.on.Cultural.Activities.............................................................................................................................................. 350

Angela Chang, University of Macau, China

Chapter 21Contemporary.Art.Museums’.Marketing.Strategies:.The.Case.of.the.Istanbul.Modern.Art.Museum............................................................................................................................................... 371

Zeynep Guney Celebi, Galatasaray University, Turkey

Chapter 22Differences.that.Matter:.A.New.Framework.for.Evaluating.Marketing.Communication.Effectiveness.in.Online.Social.Gambling............................................................................................ 389

Wilson Ozuem, University of Hertfordshire, UKJason Prasad, University of Wales, UK

Section 4Entertainment, Advertising, and Public Relations

Chapter 23The.Representation.of.Public.Relations.Profession.and.Public.Relations.Practitioners.in.the.Context.of.Entertainment.Culture.in.Turkish.TV.Series..................................................................... 421

Hilal Ozdemir Cakir, İstanbul Commerce University, Turkey

Chapter 24The.Integration.of.Entertainment.and.Advertising:.Advertainment.................................................... 440

R. Gulay Ozturk, İstanbul Commerce University, Turkey

Chapter 25Entertainment.Media:.Times.of.Branded.Content............................................................................... 461

Paula Cordeiro, University of Lisbon, PortugalAntónio Mendes, University of Lisbon, Portugal & IADE – Creative University, PortugalJosé Mascarenhas, University of Lisbon, PortugalSofia Lameira, University of Lisbon, Portugal

Chapter 26Acceptance.of.Branded.Video.Games.(Advergames):.A.Cross-Cultural.Study.Spain-USA.............. 482

José Martí-Parreño, European University of Valencia, SpainCarla Ruiz-Mafé, University of Valencia, SpainLisa L. Scribner, University of North Carolina – Wilmington, USA

Chapter 27The.Use.of.Humor.in.Award-Winning.TV.Commercials.in.Turkey.................................................... 503

Erdem Tatli, İstanbul Commerce University, TurkeyUrun Anil Ozdemir, İstanbul Culture University, Turkey

Chapter 28Advertisement.as.Part.of.Entertainment.Culture.and.its.Effects.on.City.Culture................................ 521

Betul Onay Dogan, İstanbul University, Turkey

Section 5Entertainment and Technology

Chapter 29The.Role.of.New.Media.in.Contemporary.Entertainment.Culture...................................................... 542

Ozgur Akgun, University of Maine, USA

Chapter 30Shared.Values.in.Social.Media.and.Comics.Scan.Communities.as.New.Belonging-Marks............... 558

Alexandre Honório da Silva, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (PPGCOM/UFPE), Brazil

Chapter 31Digital.Entertainment.Culture.and.Generation.Y:.An.Evaluation.on.Social.Network.Games.in.Turkey.................................................................................................................................................. 578

Barıs Kara, Galatasaray University, TurkeyR. Gulay Ozturk, İstanbul Commerce University, Turkey

Compilation of References................................................................................................................ 595

About the Contributors..................................................................................................................... 655

Index.................................................................................................................................................... 665

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Copyright © 2014, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

Chapter 6

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-6190-5.ch006

Bollywoodizing Cricket!A Fascinating World of Global Sensibilities,

Entertainment Revolution, Cultural Representation, and Economic Stunts

ABSTRACT

Bollywood is a cultural product that has molded their representational possibilities to depict the chang-ing social and political scenario of India. Moreover, it is an industry that is commercially successful and makes all efforts to take into account its middle class Indian sentiments and interest. One of its recent ventures is the launch of the Indian Premier League with most of the franchised teams owned by Bollywood stars or at least branded or heralded by film stars. This makes cricket matches extremely glamorized events with the mix of a Bollywood film. This chapter look into this aspect of transforma-tion of a popular game like cricket in India with due consideration to the cultural, entertainment, and Bollywood-izing aspect of the game.

INTRODUCTION

Bollywood is undeniably one of the biggest cul-tural industries in the world. It is celebrating its centenary year with greater global acceptance and recognition. Over its last 100 years it success-fully surpassed the most acclaimed Hollywood market in production, revenue and audience strength. Bollywood is a film industry that has displayed the changing socio-political situations of India. From mythological films to melodrama,

Bollywood reached a juncture when western or diasporic character became inevitable in these films. Gradually, considering the large migrated Indian population around the world, films began to target these audiences transcending the lan-guage and cultural barrier to reach out to global audience. At present it is a globalized cultural industry, a cinema of attractions and the most fascinating global film industry packaged with romance, melodrama, action, costumes, songs and dance extravaganzas.

Sony Jalarajan RajSt. Thomas University, USA

Rohini SreekumarMonash University, Malaysia

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When Bollywood established a devoted fan base around the world, it entered into a lucrative and previously unseen area of cross-media en-tertainment by stepping into the world of sports. Bollywood stretches its long business tentacles with Indian version of twenty20 cricket, popularly known as Indian Premier League (IPL), the money making machine which is now as competitive and profitable as English Premier League Foot-ball. Nevertheless, IPL is now one of the much celebrated events in the global sporting world where the celebrity film stars and business tycoons sponsor and organize the team. This nexus of Bol-lywood stars with the global business leaders and international cricketers fetched an easy revenue model of 200 billion dollars in the beginning year. As IPL reached the sixth season of its triumph and tribulations, it has become a prototype of a new age business entity and the model of which has been adopted in different parts of the world.

Bollywood actor’s entry into the cricket field made the sport the most glamorous event in Indian entertainment scenario.In the present era, people are searching for countess ways to get entertained. Entertaining the public is the core of most of the new researched television programs. Previously, the presence of any celebrity in the pavilion excited both the live and television audience enjoying the game. Conversely, now cricket turned out to be star-studded event bedecked with cheer-girls that made the televised world to compete for the tele-cast rights. This revolutionized the entertainment culture of public where they are now witnessing the merging of the most popular entertainment outlet – film and sports. This not only merged two big industries, but brought together the audience of cricket as well as the film. Now audience witness their favourite stars like Shah Rukh Khan, Preety Zinta and Shilpa Shetty cheering for his/her team, and the celebrity or star image that the players are getting due their presence and involvement in styl-ing the players according to their image. Here the game of cricket is getting the image of a 2-3 hour Bollywood film of anticipation, sentiments, joy,

sorrow, and where, the dance and song sequence is replaced by the cheer girls, live-drum beats and theme songs, and the highly emotional reaction by the stars on the pavilion provides the best scene of the day (as Shahrukh’s quarrel with the security staff of a stadium in Mumbai after the victory of his team Kolkota Knight Riders that banned him from entering the stadium for five years).

The proposed chapter will be an earnest attempt to evaluate the entertainment value of IPL that makes it not only a profitable revenue model, but a change agent of public attitude towards leisure and entertainment. This article also traces the growth and development of Bollywood as soft power market leading towards a global entertain-ment by moving out of the comfort zone of film industry to an ambitious platform of corporate business venture. Textual/news analysis will be used as primary source of data.

Starting with a general introduction on Bol-lywood and its global entertainment and cultural prospect, the chapter moves on to the definition of entertainment in this ICT era, and the trans-formation of the most popular sport, cricket into a new format of 20 overs reducing its timespan. This is followed by the Indian adaptation of T20 and the arrival of betting of players and a new revenue model, taking the game to a next level of entertainment.

BACKGROUND

India, aiming to become one of the super powers of the world, has only a faded image in the sports arena. Despite the population of one billion and a growing economy, India’s poor performances in world sports have been a major discussion whenever a sports event occurs. According to Chess Grand Master Pravin Thipsay, India’s meagre performance is only because of the lack of facilities for sports and practice (“Relative poor performances”, 2012). According to Kulkarani, a sports psychologist, this is also due to the lack

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of importance that the post-independent Indian society gave to extra-curricular activities. Accord-ing to her, parents, who has a profound influence in decision making, give priority to academics, as the saying goes “Kheloge kudoge to honge kharab, padhoge likhoge to banoge nawab” (“your life will be a waste if you play but if you study or do well in academics you will be a king”) (“Why does Indian”, 2012).

Even when the failure in making a mark in global athletic events has been highlighted, India is known for the ever crazy audience for cricket. Though not the national game of India cricket could still be considered as a kind of religion that unites Indian population (BBC World, n.d). No matter the geographical boundaries, cricket is enthusiastically appreciated by the Indian population irrespective of age gender or religious differences. Brought by the British colonists in India, cricket remains as one of the trace marks of the colonial rule, but with an appreciation. This gradually evolved into a mania in India, where the dream of an average kid is to become a cricketer. Lezard (2003),while reviewing the book A Corner of a Foreign Field: The Indian History of a British commented that cricket would be the major factor that undermined the caste system in India. Moreover cricketers shared the space of celebrity status enjoyed by the film stars, per-haps more in the social spectrum. Moreover, the political patronage and media support for cricket is bought under severe criticism at times (“Is cricket killing?” 2004). Being a highly commer-cialized sport, even when many other propitious games are excluded from the media slots, cricket matches never go unconsidered. Hence cricket is considered as the main stumbling block for the emergence of the country as an international sports/athletic champion (Kumar, 2011). Unlike many other sports nation-champions, like Russia, China and the US, where, a spirit for achieving a global power in sports through International sports events like Olympics and World cup soc-

cer is evident, Indian quest for sports is limited to cricket which is more or less regionalised. BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India), a private club consortium and the governing body of Indian cricket, is considered as the richest sports body India. Until recently, BCCI was exempted from tax in the name of ‘charitable organization’ (Joshi, 2012). This made this procure immense revenue due the course. Major part of its revenue comes in the form of sponsorship and media right, with organization vying to win the bid to get to BCCI. This in fact made the cricket as well as the players a glorified event and personalities respectively by the very media and society.

It is a common image in every neighbourhood of India that a group of kids playing their ver-sion of cricket within their limited facilities and infrastructure available. This flexibility of cricket itself has made it a favourite outdoor activity of people in India. Despite the irrelevance to sports and athletic games in India, the interest for cricket could be related to the commercialized and glori-fied image of cricket as well as the players. This is evident in the overwhelming response and cov-erage that the World Cups often gather which is unbeatable by any other national or international events in the history of Indian television (“World Cup final,” 2011).

Hence much has been written on the history and identity of cricket in India among which the two main works would be Guha’s A Corner of a Foreign Field (2002), and Astill’s The Great Tamasha (2013); Cricket, Corruption and the Turbulent Rise of Modern India.

The Great Tamasha is a journey of the author into a corrupted world of cricket with a sociologi-cal outlook, narrating the historical development of cricket in the colonial period to its image in the modern world, where it caused a mania. Through a series of interviews and ethnographic trips, he looks into the governing bodies mainly Board of Control for Cricket (BCCI) and the contemporary IPL fever and its reflection of modern India.

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While Astill’s work remained not well-re-searched, Guha’s A corner of a foreign field has the merit of an experienced, authoritative and indigenous look into the meaning of cricket in Indian society. Teaming cricket with a sociological history of India, he connects the game with the race, religion and caste differentiation in India.

Apart from cricket, one of the other popular entertainment means in India is Bollywood, which is now a global entity. Bollywood has always re-ceptive to changing social and political scenarios in their theme adaptations (Dudrah, 2006). In Bollywood, sports films though seized the frame quite recently, is rapidly becoming the favourite genre of filmmakers as they try to plot the films over popular games and sport games in India. By the beginning of 1980s onwards, Bollywood films began to give prior consideration to sport movies, which gradually evolved into a particular genre in the film industry in India. While sports like boxing, hockey, football etc have find place in this, majority of sports films concentrated on the theme of cricket; Lagaan, Dil Bole Hadippa (2009), Ferrari Ki Sawaari (2012), Iqbal (2005) and Kai Po Che (2013), Patiala House (2011), Victory (2009), Jannat (2008),and the list goes on. With that said, it should be noted that the first cricket film in Bollywood dates back to 1959, when Dev Anand, the legendary actor of Bolly-wood, dons the character of professional cricketer in the film, Love Marriage. It could be said that it was after the World Cup victory for India in 1983, that Bollywood realised the potential of the sports theme, and precisely cricket-themed films, and there begins the journey of a successful genre in Bollywood with 1984 sports films – Hip Hip Hurray (1984; based on football) and All Rounder (1984; based on cricket). However this hasn’t been identified as a genre in Bollywood discussions. Even though a text in a particular genre, will never seems to have similar generic characteristics (Fowler 1989), such generic analysis in contem-porary film studies is inevitable due to a niched

and categorised films aiming at specific group of people. If genre depends upon the purpose of such a categorization, sports films genre could be a generous attempt to mark and theorise the films carrying sports theme not only to generate the specific characteristic, but the sociological and cultural significance of these films according to the context of their origin. Even though a generic categorization of sports films has been possible in Bollywood, this has been less explored by the academic world. When most of these discussions on sports genre have been concentrating on either American or British films, giving prior concern to the sociology of sports films, Indian films have been almost neglected in this scholarly discussion.

Misra (2007) commented that Bollywood and cricket are the new found religion of India whose respective deities have been made use by advertis-ers to play with the consumers. Bollywood’s ap-preciation for cricket hence is a strategic economic plan to boost the films across the audience, where both the Bollywood as well the cricket fans chose to watch the films with dual interest. Apparently, Bollywood and Cricket turn out to be the two main pop culture of contemporary India. More-over, though trivial, Bollywood and cricket has always been in news for the rumoured connections between Bollywood actresses and cricket players.

Most of the above mentioned Bollywood films also follow the similar narrative pattern of an individual’s journey towards victory after severe trial and tribulations. While these redundant plots often fail to capture box-office hits, there are some deferentially scripted film that keeps the sports to an unseen context, making these films the masterpieces of the industry. Lagaan, perhaps will be the most celebrated sports movies in India, which even went to the nominations for Oscars. Set in a colonial period of Victorian age, Lagaan basically narrates the story of power relations and identity crisis through an active inclusion of cricket as a major point of conflict. According to Majumdar, (2001) the success of Lagaan largely

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looms around the mode of resistance, cricket, that the film chose to depict the between the colonizer and the colonized.

Dil Bole Hadippa on the other hand takes an entirely novel approach of giving prominence to a female character, which is so far unseen ina cricket themed film, where the central female character grabs the pivotal attention as a successful and competitive player among male-co-players. Kai Po Che, on the other hand, reflects the political inference in the selection process and the spon-sorship of cricket tournaments in India within a context of Gujarat riots. While Iqbal, follows a similar plot of the hero’s desire to win, this film sets apart as the central character is a deaf and mute full for aspirations to become a fast-bowler.

Hence, Bollywood, has always been running behind profit, and has been flexible to adapt to the changes the society demands and the industry foresee. When Bollywood films were made on cricket, cricketers were also given chances to showcase their acting talent. While analysing these films, it could be noted that most of these films had poor box office performances, but made with high expectations to tackle the sports audience. At some instances, these cricketers were taken not for their role in the society, but just as a replacement of any other actor in the industry, thus aiming at only a publicity stunt. For instance, Ajay Jadeja in Khel, No Ordinary Game (2003), as unexpected enacted a typical and cliché Bollywood teenage guy entering a triangular love story, with no similarity to his field competence. This was not a rare instance. in a similar don, players like Sunil Gavskar, Kapil Dev, and Vinod Kambli were also taken into acting with no good future predicted for them in this profession. Moreover, even interna-tional/foreign cricket players were also included in many of the sports films to give the plot a sturdy and curious climax and command. As such films like Victory (2009) and Patiala House (2011) has chosen many veteran Australian, England and New

Zealand players like Andrew Sydmons, Stuart Clark, David Gower, Graham Gooch, Michael Hussey, Martin Croweet as themselves.

Apart from these, as far as the reception is considered, cricket and Bollywood are the main entertainment modes that generate immense emo-tional response from the audience, thereby leaving a space for active public discourses. Hence, Bol-lywood decades before has tried to track the sport audience through their films, which reached at this globalized period of Bollywood whereby filming International cricketers in a foreign location with Indian film stars have become quite common. As such, Bollywood’s identity with cricket move far ahead from a narrative tactics to a revenue and marketing model, which ultimately reached to the point of Indian Premier League (IPL). As enter-tainment is the sole of a visual media like film, particularly Bollywood, it’s tying up with cricket and the new world of franchising.

Sports or precisely cricket and Bollywood are two separate entities that are unbeatably popular in India. While much have been written on both of these popular entertainment outlets, a nexus between them either as a film genre or as a entrepreneurship have been scarcely taken into consideration in the academic parlance. However, recently at least, Bollywood and cricket have be-gan to find place in scholarly discussion with the advent of cricket-themed films, particularly after the release of the popular film, Lagaan (2002). Lagaan have been analysed as portraying the cultural imperialism depicted through the game of cricket (Jones, 2013; Majumdar, 2001).

IPL takes the discussion of sports and film to a new level where this nexus is extra-filmic. This takes the whole lot elements of globaliza-tion, business, entrepreneurship and politics into the game of cricket. This is lowly taking grip in academic discussion where these elements have been correlated to identify new business model of Indian economy. Gupta (2009) finds IPL as a

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major step in realigning the power structure in the international sports. He argues that now oriental/Asian nations like India decide where, when and how to play sports which was previously unimagi-nable or unseen. Agur (2013) also takes IPL as a case study in identifying the role played by IPL in global cricket and how it has changed the global business of sports. Rasul and Proffitt (2011) moves a step forward in analysing the cultural politics of IPL, whereby cricket is considered as a high income generating machine by both corporates and cultural players like film stars. Their study is a right fire-up to the discourses on the cultural aspect of commercialising a sports event, where two popular media unite to generate profit or both.

It is at this juncture of rising number of films in Bollywood sports genre, India’s increasing popularity for cricket and the nexus between these two entirely different entities that this article tries to evaluate the bollywoodizing of sport event with IPL as its case study. The article looks into the cross-media activity of Bollywood in tracking the revenue from both the businesses that seems to provide a new model of revenue in India. Moreover it is quite novel and fascinating to analyse the ways in which Bollywood players have taken over the sports stadium that changed the entire game play to a Bollywood mix where there is song dance and lots of drama involved in it.

INDIAN PREMIER LEAGUE AND BOLLYWOOD

As previously discussed, though sports have been not a strong point in the political power agenda of India, India has already conquered the world with its ‘soft power’ (Tharoor, 2012; as quoted in “Shashi Tharoor: Soft Power”). The recent fran-chised cricket tournament is yet another kind of a cultural conquest. Indian Premier League (IPL), which Forbes Magazine labelled as the ‘World’s hottest Sports League’, is the brain child of the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India),

who modelled this upon other professional sports confederacies like English Premier League and Major League Baseball. The first season of IPL commenced on April 2008. Being the highest revenue generator, BCCI’s brain child IPL is an attempt to the track the 99 million television audi-ence in India. Targeted towards the billionaires, corporate celebrities and film stars, IPL is aimed at tracking previously unseen revenue assimila-tion. As Sinha (2011) opined, branding of IPL was achieved through segmentation, according to which the teams are segmented so that it will appeal to local as well as global audience and which could add glamour as well be able to pump huge revenue in the game.

It is cricket’s version of tabloid journalism. It is muchmore now about glamour and entertainment than about what happens between the players,” said Rajdeep Sardesai, the son of aprofessional Indian cricketer and editor in chief of CNN-IBN, a news channel. (Sengupta, 2008)

Let’s take a glance at the popular English Premier league which could be considered as the inspirational model for Indian Premier League. Barclays Premier League is said to be the most watched premier leagues in the world marking its television turn over alone to be £1.2 billion. While the teams of Premier League are 20 foot-ball clubs from various parts of Europe, IPL is a consortium of 8 teams under the banner of the most prominent personalities/celebrities from different states of India rather than any cricket clubs. This include Bollywood stars’ owned teams like Shahrukh Khan/ Juhi Chawla leading West Bengal (Kolkata Knight Riders), Shilpa Shetty for Rajasthan (Rajastan Royals) and Priti Zinta for Punjab (Kings XI Punjab), and Corporates’ owned teams like Mumbai Indians (owned by Mukhesh Ambani), Sunrisers Hyderabad owned by Sun Group (a media conglomerate), Chennai Super Kings by India Cements, Delhi Daredevils by GMR Group and Royal Challengers Bangalore owned by UB group. Premier League football games are for hard core football fans who sometimes follow

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their favourite team in different stadium around the world. The 90 minutes match is played with all eyes on the players, with no distractions of celebrity. Here players are the heroes and there chants/terrace chats form the extravaganza of the match. The suspense is created in these matches with the hooligan activities which is a direct reflection of the response of the highly devoted sports followers (Ingle, 2013).

One of the main reasons for a global popularity of IPL was the presence of celebrities like film stars and corporate icons as the franchisors of the teams. The subject gets such a prominence as it is a nexus between two global entertainment outlets, sports and Bollywood. There is a huge marketing strategy behind formulating IPL, brand elements and marketing elements. Majority of its marketing and branding is through television, thereby creating a mediated fandom and sports consumption. The global broadcasting rights for IPL was procured by partnership between Sony Entertainment Television Network and World Sport Group (Based in Singapore) for US 1.026 billion, who in turn resold the rights to other foreign broadcasters for their local telecasting in respective countries (Sinha, 2011). Since mostly depending on the broadcasting rights, Bollywood celebrities find this an added advantage to further their screen presence across the world. For them, it is dual victory as while propagating the team through television, they are also targeting their film audience. 64% of the total amount earned through television right return to the hands of franchisers. The central argument thus is how the presence of film fraternities in the sports tournament and in its ownership gave a significant boost to the marketing of the sports in a global arena. For the audience, who have seen their stars as sportsman only in big screen, this was a chance to experience their real-life dedication to sports. The main star presence in the games is none other than the King of Bollywood, Shah Rukh Khan, the owner of the team/franchise, ‘Kolkata Knight Riders’. Other prominent film stars are Prita Zinta, owner of

the team Kings XI Punjab, Shilpa Shetty, owner of Rajasthan Royals, along with the presence of an array for ambassadors like Katrina Kaif and Deepika Padukone from respective states to en-courage the players and the team.

In the contemporary world, where sports events are increasingly going global and expanding its wings, one of the effective way to brand it would be through celebrities who has already gained name in a the global cultural scenario. In many ways, IPL is an adaptation of English Premier League, where by the teams are regionalized and franchised which run on a profit mission apart from sports enthusiasm. As Rowe and Gilmour opined on the hybridised global/local culture of sports consumption in Asian countries,

These shifts are manifest in the growing popu-larity of sports entertainment cultures that reflect the rise of emergent media and leisure economies, combining global aspirational cosmopolitanism with an assertion of local cultural identities and histories.

Hence propagating IPL could not be more effective than giving it into the hands of film personalities (few at least) who can lift the im-age of the league to a global sports entertainment scenario. The major success of the show hence lies in the way it has met with audience need for entrainment and their expectations from a film- glamour, heroes, villains, sentiments, emotions, conflicts, and victory.

As when the consumption and conception of sports become culturally adapted and identified, for India, Bollywood being the major commodity showing India in a global map, there is no other better strategy that connect the game with the film industry, but Bollywood. Such a nexus is a double edged coin, where by on one side the profit generation is an advantage for both the parties, the glamorous new role and branding of himself/herself or their films is an added advantage for film fraternities. Moreover, the new culturally adapted sports event is also a novel way to address the limitations of both the medium; traditional cricket

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lacked a glamour, and Bollywood, though has filmed cricket, lacked a direct showcase of their sports spirit.Here the pivotal game of cricket has been diluted to only part of a giant extravaganza, where laser shows, cheer leaders, responsive film stars in the pavilion has captured most of the space.

WHEN BOLLYWOOD REACHED THE STADIUM: A GLAMOURIZED CRICKET

Rather than looking at the revenue generated, this article looks at the way this IPL was projected as a visual extravagance, there by reformatting the stage, scenario and the reception of cricket. This remains as a perfect example of how the traditional definition of cricket or a Premier League has been redefined by the modern celebrity society.

While getting to the game in itself, the event is organized in such a manner that every second of the game hold complete glamorous extravagance as it is also telecasted live through television around the globe apart from the live audience in the sta-dium. Here the attempt is to showcase cricket as a glamorous Bollywood event. Every match is a 3 hour show packed with the filmic elements of anticipation, sentiments, joy, sorrow, and where, the dance and song sequence is replaced by the cheer girls, live-drum beats and theme songs. More than the players, it is the stars in the pavilion that the camera always focuses to capture the highly emotional reaction by them making it sometimes the best scene of the day. In fact IPL could be considered as a televised sports spectacle as a Bollywood masala film.

Bollywood is globally popular for its song and dance sequences. IPL, the televised spectacle was not devoid of this. One of the main elements that has been both criticized and encouraged during the game was the presence of cheer girls, a group of seductively dressed girls who cheered, swayed and applaud on the ground. ‘Dancing beauties’ as

they are often referred to could be compared to the recent trend of ‘item dancers’ in Bollywood films, where by a sexy dancer number often by some popular actress in Bollywood (who just have a cameo appearance through this song) is included in the film, which has no relation to the plot, but just to market the film and the songs. As with the item girls and item numbers in the film, cheerleaders were not devoid of any criticism. Moreover, most of these cheer girl groups are taken from Europe, Australia and US. This also is a globalizing trend of Bollywood, where by films increasingly cast foreign characters, both as a significant element of its storyline, and also to support the dance and song sequences. The role of these cheer girls are questioned from politicians to religious leaders. Bharatiya Janata Party, President (Maharashtra) commented that while the dance bars are banned in Maharashtra, why these cheer girls are not bought under the same legislature being similar or sometimes worse than bar girls (Raghunath, 2008). However being a Bollywood star-studded event, the role of cheerleaders is easily understood as a point to maximize the glamour. Even before the season commence, news about its music performances used to take the sports and entertainment section of all media. There was a huge publicity in 2011 for IPL’s fourth season that Shahrukh khan is planning to share screen with Pop singer Shakira for his teams’ theme music. However, though the news have been never con-firmed nor did the song ever happened, audience was patiently following up with the star activities in the IPL in a similar way as they do prior to the release of his film. Again in 2013, Shahrukh Khan was dragged into the news when Jennifer Lopez turned down the offer put forward by his team Kolkata Knight Riders to perform in inaugural ceremony of the sixth season of IPL.

When coming to the music, IPL team Themes songs have been much discussed and debated in the media and particularly on YouTube. Shilpa’s Rajastan Royals chose Sunidhi Chauhan whereas

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Kings XI Punjab owned by Priti Zinta made the Punjabi pop singer Daler Mehandi, brand ambas-sador to give a musical touch to their team.

Shah Rukh Khan and his team Kolkata Knight Riders would be the best case study of analysis in this glamorised sports event. SRK’s team is consid-ered commercially the most successful because it has a high number of sponsors. SRK’s star power acts as a money puller for the team. Being unbeat-able in the film industry and a global icon, Shah Rukh himself is the brand ambassador of his team, and is one of the highest revenue making team in the event. An year before the commencement of the first season of IPL, Shah Rukh captured the box office with an unique character as a Hockey coach in the film, Chak de India (2007). This in fact gave a boost to the star value of the actor when he took the leadership of a cricket team. Much of the drama in the IPL seasons are provided by him through his emotional response in pavilion. To give a glamorous touch to his team, the jersey for his players were designed by the renowned Bollywood fashion designer, Manish Malhotra (“Kolkata Knight”, 2008) and under the director-ship of the prominent choreographer and director Farah Khan, a music video album was made with an African background (“No new”, 2010).

In the seasons starting from 2008 to 2012, Bollywood directors deferred the release of the films during the initial season of the IPL earing that the filmsget unnoticed because of the gain-ing popularity of the cricket extravaganza (Das, 2012). Sinha (2012) commented that during the first three seasons of IPL, multiplexes remained almost unutilized, with some of them showing IPL promos, rather than film. However, by 2012, as the popularity of IPL began to wane, Bollywood filmmakers made the IPL vent itself as a stage for promoting the films and actors. According to Rowe (2004) the positive image of a global sports event is exploited for promoting films among the sports fans, so that more audience will be attracted both to the sports ground as well to the film theatres. Recent trend of film team owners

to encourage the promotional activities is also a similar stunt to track the audience, as the TRP ratings of IPL is gradually waning as the years pass (“IPL’s television rating”, 2013). As such film personalities increasingly began to use the event as a platform to promote the films and other causes, as the IPL itself is a complete package of visual treat. The latest in the list is Shah Rukh’s film Chennai Express (2013), whose promo is released in the final match of IPL Season 6. Moreover, social causes also find this platform more helpful. As such Farhan Akhtar promoted his MARD (Men Against Rape and Discrimination) campaign, raising voice against gender inequality and atrocities against women. The match chosen for the promotion is also notable; biggest matches between Shah Rukh Khan’s team Kolkatta Knight Riders and Priety Zinta’s Kings 11 Punjab with a whole pavilion wearing black big moustache.

Broadcasters have exploited this potential of attaching spectacle to sports. Channel Colors owned by Viacom and Network 18 unleashed four shows taking into its ambit the audience of Bol-lywood and cricket. IPL Rockstar, a music talent reality show is one among the ambitious project in which the Bollywood team owners like Shahrukh, Shilpa Shetty and Preity Zinta taking turns to be in the judgment seat making the experience of the cricket even to more heights. While the IPL Award Night was organized to honour the performers on field IPL Khatron Ke Khiladi, reality show like Fear Factor was organized whereby cricketers perform stunts. The list has been filled by a series of Fashion shows and music events organized by different franchises of IPL (Chandran, 2010). Rajesh, the chief executive of Colors commented,

Cricket is a national passion. Bollywood is a religion. If you can bring both of them together, it can’t get any bigger than that… (Leahy, 2010)

Meanwhile, Star Plus has conducted the Bol-lywood award night CINTAA award in conjunc-tion with the third season of IPL. As television

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channel vie to attach shows to the popularity of IPL and Bollywood, this in-turn has helped the films fraternities to use these platform to market their films.

As Bollywood also is known for its highly emotional and sensational melodrama and con-flict, the game is also not devoid of conflicts and media bash. Two of the cheer girls from Kings XI Punjab wasasked to leave the stadium at Mo-hali by the team’s event management company Wizcraft International Entertainment pointing on their dark skin (Banerjee, 2008). This shook the society with global media bashing against the racist approach of the company.The King of the show, Shah Rukh left no chances to make this event no less than a Bollywood films with his highly poignant response to issues. IN the first season of IPL, Shahrukh made a huge cry when ICC Anti-corruption Unit prohibited him from entering the dressing room and the dugout area (“SRK say he”, 2008). Expressing disap-pointment and frustration the actor announced that he will boycott the matches. To add with it, in 2012, for misbehaving and manhandling the security personals, he was banned for five years from entering the MCA (Mumbai Cricket Asso-ciation) premises including Wankhede Stadium (“Shah Rukh Khan banned”, 2012). Though the response came after the victory of his team in the match, for the public, this anti-climax was no less than watching a thriller. Filmic moments were incessant in the IPL seasons that filled the air space of both new and entertainment media. During the IPL season 5 in 2012, five players were suspended from BCCI for spot-fixing which was actually caught in a sting operation by a private news channel (Ramanujam, 2012).

It could be said that the democratisation of cricket happened with IPL as family audience began to frequent stadium. This is in stiff response to the positives of IPL like less duration, presence of their favourite celebrities, music, dance and drama within an affordable ticket price to enter the stadium (Bastian, 2012). To make the show

enjoyable for the non-English speaking group, Sony Six commenced the Hindi commentary for the matched telecasting in their channel. This has also reflected in the television viewership of IPL which rose to a record of 140 million in its sixth season (Srivastava, 2013).

The trend of using sports celebrities for product endorsement has been looked at as a marketing tac-tics to increase the emotional tie between consumer and the celebrity (Stone, Joseph, Jones, 2003). Particularly in India high performing sports per-sonalities are the highest endorsers. For instance, Forbes Magazine ranked Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the Indian cricket team captain the 31st in the list of richest sportsperson far ahead of Wayne Rooney and Usain Bolt. Out of his income, 90 percent came from his endorsements that make him one of the wealthiest sportsperson in the world. It’s quite amusing to note that half of the products that he endorse has no particular relation with the filed he is belonging to like Mysore Sandal soap, Dabur Honey and Videocon . As Carlson and Donavan (2008) opined, the fan’s identification with the celebrity has a positive impact on the marketing of that product due to the emotional attachment called para-social relationship. In this particular case, the product or event is marketed by film stars where by the para-socioal relationship has doubled with the presence of Bollywood stars who has also made use of the fandom of sports stars to increase the brand of their franchise. However, even though cricket became a household name in India with IPL, these games are known for its celebrity/film star presence rather than the glory of the game in the same way a film is popular for its star presence.

SOLUTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

As contrary to the belief that the IPL can nega-tively affect the Bollywood film release, it has proved that cricket and Bollywood can go hand

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in hand when it reached its sixth season. Films have proved that if the story is good the success is certain. Though IPL brought forward the com-mercialisation of cricket previously unseen in India or elsewhere, this also have democratised the sports with the participation of all sectors of society. However the spirit of the game have far been removed from the stadium due to its capsule effect and the distractions in the stadium like star presence. One of the constructive service that these franchises could do to the society is to dedicate a part of their profit for entertaining cricket clubs in their respective states that could encourage young cricketers to come forward. Each franchis-ers should make sure that their teams have a few new faces from these clubs. This will make the league in all ways democratic.

FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS

IPL has opened many possibilities of identifying the different economics of sports in this globalized world. Apart from the Bollywoodization of a sport it is an excellent case study in analysing how a globalized cultural medium like Bollywood can take on the sports market which is also a global entity. This also takes the discussion to another level where marketing of sports using similar popular cultural medium get prior concern. Hence rather than looking at the sports and its manage-ment, the cultural phenomenon of these games become the major element of analysis.

CONCLUSION

The latest result of a global mediated cultural extravaganza is the Bollywoodized cricket tour-nament named Indian Premier League. As Rowe and Gilmour (2009) quoted, the tagline of contemporary global sports is ‘a mediated live cultural form’. While being constituted by a culture, in the present world, the consumption

of that event remains global, though being local. IPL is a perfect example of how the overpower-ing entrainment world has captured the scope of sports in furthering their business interest and vice versa. Cricket and Bollywood being the two pop culture of India, the coming together of these two huge revenue-makers, rewrite the formula of revenue assimilation.

For cricket as well as the Bollywood industry, it is a win-win situation, as both flourish on the reputation of either. The nexus proved well as it tracked a combination of audience, both local and global, consisting of both the sports as well as the film fans. The important element, the game itself, has been pushed aside by the presence of star entrepreneurs and film stars. Bollywood entrepreneurs left no chance to make the event an extravagance where the sports stadium could be transformed to a film location, not devoid of any elements that make a filmic stuff.The choice of cricket to nexus with, is also a main point to ponder upon as when Indian Badminton League (a franchise league similar to IPL) was constituted, none of the member from the film industry chose to franchise it.

Though the article gave prior concern only to the bollywoodizing trend of IPL, it also shed light on the non-western flow of culture. Though adapted from the western concept of premier leagues, IPL has interpreted it such a way that it gave a locally-rooted cultural touch, branding it as an entertainment extravaganza with global players, thus making it a global sport event. Such a contextualized sports event is important as it characterised by the non-western world, thus realigning the power structure of the world. IPL has opened many possibilities of identifying the different economics of sports in this globalized world. Apart from the Bollywoodization of a sport it is an excellent case study in analysing how a globalized cultural medium like Bollywood can take on the sports market which is also a global entity. This also takes the discussion to another level where marketing of sports using similar

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popular cultural medium get prior concern. Hence rather than looking at the sports and its manage-ment, the cultural phenomenon of these games become the major element of analysis.

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KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS

BCCI: Board of Control of Cricket in India. It is the national governing body of cricket reg-istered as a society in India formed on 1928. IPL has been initiated by BCCI in 2008.

Bollywood: The Hindu film industry in India is popularly known as Bollywood. It is one of the cultural industries that have gone global and most often represent the Indian film industry abroad.

Cheer Girls: A team or group of girls who are perform certain dance numbers, cheering and stunts to cheer up the team and celebrate the vic-tory. In India this cheer groups became popular with IPL.

IPL: Indian Premier League. It is a twenty 20 cricket league in India having eight main fran-chises. The league is popular for the presence of Bollywood celebrities.

Para-Social Relationship: An interpersonal relationship where by only those at one side of the relationship knows about the other. It is often used to define the fan psychology or the relationship that the fans have with their favourite star/celebrity whereby even though the star may not be aware about the presence of his individual followers.

Spot-Fixing: It is an illegal activity whereby specific part of the game is previously fixed.

Twenty 20 Cricket (T20): It is a form of cricket originally originated in England in which the teams will play for 20 overs each. Lasting for not more than 3 hours for each innings, it is try-ing to match-up with other popular games like Football and Hockey.

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About the Contributors

R. Gulay Ozturk was born in 1981, in Istanbul. She received her bachelor’s degree from Marmara University at the Department of Public Relations and Publicity in 2004 and her master’s degree and PhD from the same university at the Department of Advertising and Publicity. After receiving her PhD, she went to Georgetown University CCT Faculty in Washington DC as a short-term scholar with a Postdoc-toral Research Scholarship of TUBITAK for her post-doc research. She is working as an Assistant Prof. in Istanbul Commerce University, Faculty of Communication at the Department of Public Relations. The research areas that she is interested in include advertising, digital advertising, emotions, product placements, tourism advertising, brand and strategic planning.

* * *

Ozgur Akgun received his BA, MA, and PhD degrees from Istanbul University School of Com-munication. After completion of his graduate studies at Istanbul University, Ozgur moved to the United States. He continued his graduate studies at the University of Texas-Pan American. He received his MBA degree where he explored the aspects of media management and marketing. Prior to his academic career, he worked at different positions from production manager to assistant director in the advertising industry. His short films and scholarly videos received national and international recognitions. Currently, Ozgur is a graduate student at the University of Maine Intermedia MFA program, where he studies the effects of new media technologies in conventional media environment.

Cuneyt Binatli is a Professor of Media and Communication Systems in Istanbul Commerce Univer-sity, Turkey. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Public Finance in 1966 and completed an MA degree in Public Finance in 1968 at Anadolu University. He received PhD degree in Public Finance from An-adolu University in 1971. He was promoted to Professor in Press Enterprise in 1986. His main research areas; Public Finance, Media and Culture, Media History and Economy, Publishing of Newspaper and Magazine, Marketing, Advertising Strategies.

Guven Buyukbaykal completed his undergraduate studies in the Department of Public Relations and Advertising, Istanbul University and earned his master’s degree in Public Relations and Advertising in the Social Sciences Institute of Istanbul University. In the same way, he was granted his doctorate degree in Journalism in the respective institute of Istanbul University. Currently, he has been working as an as-sociate professor in the Department of Journalism, School of Communications, Istanbul University and he has been teaching Sports Press, Economy Press and Press Management courses in this department.

About the Contributors

Apart form his national and international articles, he has issued two books, namely “The Position and Importance of Promotion Integration in Banking Sector” and “The Position and Importance of Football in Print Media in Turkey from the Past to the Present.”

Hilal Ozdemir Cakir was born in 1973 in İstanbul. She received her bachelor’s degree from Mar-mara University, in the Department of Journalism in 1998 and her master’s degree and PhD from the same university in the Department of Public Relations. She is working as an Assistant Prof. in İstanbul Commerce University, Faculty of Communications in the Department of Public Relations. The research areas that she is interested in include corporate public relations, crisis communication, corporate social responsibility, corporate image and corporate reputation.

Zeynep Guney Celebi graduated from Bilkent University International Relations Department in 2002 and afterward she worked as a copywriter in several advertising agency in Istanbul. She completed her master and PhD at Marmara University Communication Faculty between the years 2004 and 2010. She was working as a research assistant at the Galatasaray University Communication Faculty between the years 2004 and 2014. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Advertising at the Galatasaray University Communication Faculty. Her research interests in advertising and marketing are in the field of interactive advertising and marketing, advertising copywriting, creative advertising. Moreover, she is also researching on the relationship between art and advertising, and art marketing.

Ozgur Cengel is an Associate Professor of Marketing at Istanbul Commerce University- Istanbul, Turkey. He received his BSBA and MBA degrees at the University of Central Florida. He received his PhD in Production Management and Marketing at Marmara University- Turkey. He is currently the De-partment Head of Business Administration at Istanbul Commerce University. He acts as the Audit Board Member of Turkish Marketing Association. In addition, he is the Board Member of the Economist’s Platform in Turkey. He mainly lectures in the fields of Marketing, Sales and Logistics. His main areas of study are Marketing Management, Consumer Behavior, Brand Management, International Marketing, Sales Management, and Logistics Management.

Angela Chang is assistant professor in the department of communication at University of Macau. She holds a PhD in Communications and Advertising from the Union Institute & University, USA. Chang’s research area focuses on advertising strategy, consumer behavior, audience study, health communica-tion, and eye-tracking method. Her publication includes a book on advertising, several technical reports for government and non-profit organizations, academic book chapters and referred journals’ articles. Her recent publications have appeared in the Journal of Advertising, Budapest Management Review, International Journal of Communication and Health, and included book chapters published by Ashgate, Springer, IGI Global, and other publishers. Currently, Chang is collaborating with the researchers in Switzerland to investigate the childhood obesity issues.

Paula Cordeiro holds a PhD in Communication, with a specialization in Audiovisual and Interac-tive Media. She is the Research Coordinator at the Communication and Media research group of CAPP. Teaches Undergraduate and Graduate programs such as Theories of Communication, Digital Media,

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About the Contributors

Radio or Communication Themes at ISCSP, University of Lisbon. She has been researching the field of Digital Media and Radio since 2000. Her research interests include technology convergence, social networks and radio, programming formats, music and cultural diversity, socio-cultural behaviors, music and radio branding and marketing strategies, and online radio as well as the re-conceptualization of radio in digital platforms. She has participated in different research projects, and as speaker in national and European congress, meetings and seminars. She has recently published a book about radio and cultural industries and is working on her new book, about radio and the Internet.

Ruly Darmawan is a member of Research Group of Design Science and Visual Culture. He is also being assigned as lecturer at Faculty of Art and Design, Bandung Institute of Technology, Indonesia, for postgraduate and undergraduate level in design studies and interior design. He obtained a Doctoral degree in art and design studies from Postgraduate School, Art and Design Study Program, Bandung Institute of Technology. His research interests are technocultural studies, media and lifestyle studies, visual culture, and spatial design studies. He also spends his spare-time in creating creative works and writing several articles in the field of contemporary society.

Alexandre Honorio da Silva is a PhD Candidate from Communication Post-Graduate Program of Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (PPGCOM/UFPE) and Master in Social Sciences by the Social Sci-ences Post-Graduate Program of Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (PGCS/UFRN). Studying the collaborative communities that emerged with the developing of the hypertechnological/hypermodern environments, for his research as a PhC he is investigating to the communities and groups dedicated to the illegal digitalization of comics in Brazil - and the apparent link that their practices and uses has with others collaborative practices developed through networked environments. In 2013, through the CAPES Sandwich PhD program, he conducted part of his research at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Spain).

Thomas Döbler is head of the department of media management at the campus Stuttgart, Macrome-dia University for Media and Communication. He studied Sociology, Psychology and Economics at the University of Munich and received his PhD in Business Administration at the University of Hohenheim. Before joining the Macromedia University he was head of the department of IT and Media Research at the Medien- und Filmgesellschaft Baden-Württemberg (MFG). His current research focuses on Use and Acceptance of Social Media, Sociology of Communication and Media Management. Current book is Wertschöpfung durch Medien im Wandel (ed. with Castulus Kolo and Lars Rademacher) 2012.

Betul Onay Dogan is an assistant Professor of Advertisement at Istanbul University. She received her Master of Public Relations from the Communication Faculty of Selcuk University in 2008, and her master thesis topic is “A theoretical and practical study about the perception of the practices of local administrations in public foundations in terms of public relations.” Then, she received her PhD in Pub-lic Relations and Publicity from the Communication Faculty of Istanbul University in 2012. Her PhD subject is “Role and Effect of Public Relations applications in Constituting a Communication Strategy of Urban.” Her research interests include space and communication, urban communication, semiotics in advertising applications.

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About the Contributors

Ece Karadogan Doruk got her bachelor’s degree in Journalism at Communication Faculty of Istan-bul University in 1995. She received her MA degree in Journalism from the same university in 1997. She completed her PhD in Public Relations and Publicity Department in 2003. She became an associate professor in “Applied Public Relations “in 2010. She currently works as an academician in Communi-cation Faculty of Istanbul University. Her research topics include theories of persuasion and rhetoric, communication sociology, communication science and organizational behaviour.

M. Nur Erdem was born in 1976 in Zonguldak, Turkey. She graduated from Kocaeli University, Faculty of Communication where she also received her master degree in Public Relations in 2008. She is a PhD candidate at the same university on Communication Sciences and also a lecturer at Istanbul Kavram Vocational College, Marketing, and Advertising Department. She conducts research in the areas of advertising, media literacy, and advertising literacy.

Kristian Feigelson is a sociologist and teaches cinema at the University of the Sorbonne Nouvelle. Co-author of Bollywood: industry of images, (Théorème 16, Presse Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris, 2012) he contributes to different journals and has published numerous works on film culture. His recent publica-tions includes The film factory, ed Armand Colin, Paris, 2011.

Catherine Ghosn is an Associate Professor in Information and Communication Studies at Paul Sabatier University, Toulouse (France). Her research develops two aspects. The first one focuses on television: the rise of public service television and private channels in France (in an international perspective, with a comparison between the French television and television in Europe or the United States). She is also interested in the question of the representation of ethnic minorities on television. The second aspect of her research focuses on the question of diversity and plurality of information on the internet. Many view-ers and citizens turn away from TV because they feel inadequately represented or because they believe that public television no longer fulfills its role.

Ebru Karadogan Ismayilov is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Visual Communication Design at Istanbul Commerce University in Turkey. She has received her BA degree in the Department of Radio TV and Cinema from Marmara University in 2001, and then her MA degree in Media and Communication Systems from Istanbul Commerce University in 2003. She received her PhD degree in Radio TV from Marmara University in 2011. Ms İsmayilov’s taught courses at the University are Basic Photography and Film Readings. Her research interests cover topics like Alienation, Abjection and Reification in Cinema, Uncanniness of Daily Life and its Notation in Literature, Film and Media, Culture Industry, and Surveillance Studies. Ms. İsmayilov has authored several articles that appeared in different Turkish journals in the previous years.

Gozde Oymen Kale is an Assistant Professor of Public Relations in Istanbul Commerce University, Turkey. She received her Bachelors Degree in Economics in 2000 at Istanbul University and completed a Masters Degree in Business Administration (specialized in Marketing) in 2002 at Yeditepe University. She received her PhD degree in Public Relations from Istanbul University in 2006. She began to work as a Research Assistant in the department of Advertising Management in 2004 in Yeditepe University.

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About the Contributors

Then, she was appointed as a lecturer in Istanbul Commerce University, Communication Faculty, the department of Public Relations and promoted to Asst.Prof. in the same department in 2008. Her main research areas are Marketing, Integrated Marketing, Brand Management and Consumer Behavior.

Baris Kara was born in 1980, in Bursa. He received his bachelor’s degree from Galatasaray Univer-sity in the Department of Public Relations and Publicity in 2004, and his masters degree from the same university in the Department of Social Sciences in 2007. He graduated with a PhD in the Department of Advertising and Publicity from Marmara University in 2012. Also, he has been working as a research assistant in Galatasaray University, Faculty of Communication in the Department of Advertising since 2007. The research areas that he is interested in include advertising, cultural studies, and sociology of communication.

Yildiray Kesgin was born in 1987, in Istanbul. He received his bachelors degree from Kadir Has University in the Department of Advertising in 2010 and his masters degree from Yeditepe University in the Department of Journalism. He is working as a research assistant in Istanbul University and he is a PhD student in Istanbul University Institute of Social Siences Journalism Department. Also, he is work-ing at the Communication Faculity News Agency as editor. The research areas that he is interested in include Advertising, new media, social media, journalism, speach, women studies, hate speach, freedom, racism, sports journalism, entertainment, and journalism ethic.

Aysegul Kesimoglu has a BSc (Vehbi Koc Scholar) in Economics from Koç University in Istanbul/Turkey and an MSc degree (Cum Laude) in the economics and management of creative industries (Arts, Culture, Media and Entertainment) from the Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi (Università Boc-coni) in Milan / Italy. Currently, she is a PhD student within the department of Culture and Creative Industries at City University London in London, United Kingdom. Her research interests are on cultural stratification, gastronomy and the formation of a taste hierarchy. She is focusing on Turkey.

Sofia Lameira graduated in Communication Studies and does research at CAPP, participating in research activities of Communication and Media research group, such as Generations Online in Europe, a multidisciplinary international research project, as well as the social and cultural behavior, media, consumption and marketing research project, to which her master thesis will be a strong contribution. Her research interests include socio-cultural behaviors, marketing strategies, communication of luxury goods, communication management, Social and New media Manager and cultural industries. This article contained herein will be part of her master thesis.

José Martí-Parreño (PhD, Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Business, Faculty of Social Sciences, Universidad Europea de Valencia. His main research areas include marketing communications, interactive marketing, mobile marketing, social networking sites, and new advertising formats such as branded entertainment and advergaming. His research has been published in refereed journals such as Industrial Management & Data Systems, Online Informa-tion Review, International Journal of Mobile Communications, and Journal of Brand Management. He has authored and co-authored seven books on marketing including Engagement Marketing (Financial Times/Prentice Hall, 2008). He serves as a reviewer in several international journals including Journal of Product & Brand Management.

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About the Contributors

José Mascarenhas has a masters degree in social communication and is currently working on his PhD dissertation. He worked has an editor and editor in chief for the biggest men’s magazines on the planet and he’s the communication manager for a web marketing company. He is also a screenwriter and a teacher.

Antonio Mendes is currently a PhD candidate at ISCSP – Universidade de Lisboa. Graduated in Sociology at ISCTE, holds an MBA and an MA in Management from INDEG / ISCTE. He is a faculty member at IADE – CREATIVE UNIVERSITY LISBON, teaching branding, emotional branding and consumer behaviour. He is the author of the books Branding (2010) and Branding Revised (on print). As a speaker, he has participated in several Portuguese and European conferences. He is also the program-ming director of RFM, a leading private radio station at the R/Com group of media.

Anil Ozdemir graduated from Istanbul Culture University, Department of Architecture in 2004. She proceeded to do her graduate degree at the same university in the Faculty of Art and Design on “Web and Graphic” in 2007. She completed her PhD degree at Marmara University in 2013, Department of Advertising and Publicity, as well as working as a teaching assistant at Istanbul Culture University since 2004. Her main research areas are Space, Consumption, Visual Perception, Advertising.

Yaman Oztek is a Full Professor of Marketing at Galatasaray University- Istanbul,Turkey. He re-ceived his BSBA degree in Business Administration at Marmara University, MBA degree in Marketing Management at Istanbul University. He received his PhD in Production Management and Marketing at Marmara University- Turkey. He was awarded his Full- Professorship in 2003 at Galatasaray University. He is currently the Department Head of Business Administration at Galatasaray University. He mainly lectures in the fields of Marketing, Sales and Logistics. His main areas of study are Marketing Manage-ment, Advertising Management, Warehousing Management, Brand Management, International Marketing, Sales Management, Customer Relationship Management and Logistics Management. He is a member of Turkish Marketing Association and Marketing/Public Researchers Association.

Wilson Ozuem is Associate Professor of Digital Marketing at Regents University, London (UK). His research interests include the implications of information technology for decision making by marketers and consumers. The results of his research have been published in scholarly journals and International conference papers, including the European Journal of Marketing, Social Responsibility Journal, World Business Congress. Dr Ozuem teaches in a number of UK universities including the University of Gloucestershire and the University of Hertfordshire, GSM (London). He currently teaches MSc and MBA courses in marketing communications, Internet marketing, research methodology, and market-ing management. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (FCIM) and has worked as a marketing consultant for several companies and organizations. He received his BA in Business from the University of Portsmouth, MA in Marketing from University of West London, MBA from London Metropolitan University, MEd (Educational Leadership and Management) from Open University (UK), Doctorate from Anglia Ruskin University, and Postgraduate Degree in Educational Research from Uni-versity of Cambridge.

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About the Contributors

Nadezhda Nikolaevna Pokrovskaia was born 1972, in Leningrad, USSR. She is a Professor in the Sociology department at Saint-Petersburg State University of Economics and also Secretary General of Scientific Council at the National Humanitarian University of Russia (Saint-Petersburg) now. In 1991, the country was broken up into Russia and other republics. The deep transition from the Soviet Union socialist model to the liberal market economy caused the interest towards social-economic regulation. In 2000, her first PhD thesis was defended in Consumer behaviour in the book publishing industry. In 2008, she completed her Doctoral thesis on Regulation of economic and organisation behaviour. She is a Corresponding Member of the International Academy of Sciences of Higher School (Russia), a full member of Academy of Humanism Sciences (Armenia), a member of Saint-Petersburg Researchers Union, and editor-in-chief of the analytical review “LiC” (Personality & Culture) since 1998. She has more than 180 published books and articles. In 2008, she was awarded with the Gagarin Medal of 30 years Space Federation of Russia.

Jason Prasad is a uniquely recognized Marketing and Affiliate Professional with over a decade of experience in the online gambling industry. Jason’s primary knowledge focuses on developing strate-gic marketing plans and establishing affiliate programs for large global Online Gaming Companies in the North American and European markets. Jason holds an MBA degree with distinction honours in Marketing and Digital Marketing from The University of Wales and a BCOM degree in Marketing and Logistics from The Sauder School of Business.

Sony Jalarajan Raj is the Graduate Coordinator and Assistant Professor for Communication in the Institute for Communication, Entertainment, and Media at St. Thomas University Florida, USA. Dr. Raj is a professional journalist turned academic who has worked in different demanding positions as a reporter, special correspondent, and producer in several news media channels like BBC, NDTV, Doordarshan, AIR, and Asianet News. Over a decade, Dr Raj has been in academics as a faculty member in Journalism, Mass Communication, and Media Studies at Monash University, Australia, Curtin University, Mahatma Gandhi University, and University of Kerala. Dr Raj is on the editorial board of five major international research journals and he edits the Journal of Media Watch. His research interests include communicative rationality, information flow, digital divides, the news media influences on the public sphere and visual media. Dr Raj is the recipient of the Reuters Fellowship and is a Thomson Foundation (UK) Fellow in Television Studies with the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association Scholarship.

Carla Ruiz-Mafe (PhD, University of Valencia, Spain) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Marketing at the University of Valencia. Her research interests include consumer behaviour, marketing communications, brand management, and online marketing. She is particularly interested in the study of online consumer behaviour. She has published 34 papers in international refereed journals such as Internet Research, Online Information Review, Industrial Management & Data Systems, The Services Industries Journal, Journal of Service Management, Journal of Air Transport Management, and 7 in-ternational book chapters. She serves as a reviewer in several international journals.

D. Zeynep Bayazit Sahinoglu (born in 1976, Istanbul) is an Assistant Prof. at the Istanbul Commerce University, Commercial Sciences Faculty, Turkey. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Economics at George Washington University, DC in 1999 and her Masters degree in Information Systems Manage-

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About the Contributors

ment at American University, DC in 2001. She completed her PhD in Advertising and Publicity at the Marmara University, Turkey in 2009. She began her teaching career in 2001, and she was promoted as the head of two programs in Aviation at the Vocational School of Istanbul Commerce University. She has authored several publications and taught several courses with a particular focus on Marketing and Advertising. Her special interest fields are Marketing Communication, Consumer’s Decision Making Process and Reactions, Social Media Marketing, Retailing, Brand Strategies.

Lisa Luebbehusen Scribner (PhD, University of South Carolina, USA) is an Associate Professor of Marketing in the Cameron School of Business at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Professor Scribner’s research has been published in the International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, Journal of Global Business, Total Quality Management Journal, Marketing Education Review, Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, and oth-ers. Professor Scribner’s primary research interests involve multiple aspects of consumer behavior, such as cross-cultural family decision making, branded entertainment and advergaming, consumer product knowledge, comparative advertising, and consideration set formation.

Aygun Sen is a research assistant at the University of Marmara in Istanbul, Faculty of Communica-tions, Department of Radio-TV and Cinema. She is a graduate of the same department. She completed her master thesis at the Communication Faculty of Marmara University in 2010 in İstanbul. She is a PhD student at Marmara University, Faculty of Communications. She has publications on Japanese Anima-tion, Turkish Cinema, and gender.

Nihal Kocabay Sener was born in 1985 in İstanbul, Turkey. She graduated from Istanbul University, Faculty of Communication where she also received her master degree in journalism in 2010. She is a PhD candidate at the same university and also a research assistant at Istanbul Commerce University, Faculty of Communication. She conducts research in the areas of international communication, representation, and communication sociology.

Ala Sivas graduated from Marmara University Communication Faculty in 2001. She completed her MA and PhD in the department of Radio-TV at Marmara University. She studied her international postdoctoral research “Dynamics of Contemporary Italian Cinema: Industrial Change and Narrative Structure” under the supervision of professor Gian Piero Brunetta at the University of Padua in 2008-2009, with scholarship of “The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey.” She is work-ing at Istanbul Commerce University as an Associate Professor and giving lectures on Film History, Criticism, Film Theories and Turkish Film History. Some of her recent studies are Italyan Sinemasina Bakiş (author) (View to Italian Cinema, Kirmizi Kedi, 2010) and Yavuz Turgul Sinemasini Keşfetmek (editor) (Discovering the Cinema of Yavuz Turgul, Kirmizi Kedi, 2011).

Rohini Sreekumar is pursuing her PhD from the School of Arts and Social Sciences at Monash University. She received her Masters Degree in Mass Communication and Journalism from Mahatma Gandhi University, India with a gold medal. Rohini is the recipient of the National Merit Scholarship and Junior Research Fellowship from the University Grants Commission of India. Her research interest include film transnational film reception, diasporic studies, and Journalism practice.

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