NBA will sell apparel online in India via Jabong.com.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: The National Basketball Association (NBA) has officially opened its first-ever store on the Indian subcontinent, and it got a big assist from one of Bollywood’s leading men: Abhishek Bachchan.
Bachchan – the son of screen legends Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan, and the husband of actress Aishwarya Rai – helped inaugurate the NBA’s new online store at the Four Seasons hotel in Mumbai. The NBA apparel, which consists of every from jerseys to hats, will be sold via the Jabong.com online marketplace, one of the biggest in India.
A long-time fan of basketball, Bachchan told reporters at the event that he and his father used to bond over basketball while the latter was recuperating from an injury he incurred on the set of his 1982 film Coolie. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Bachchan senior and junior would watch the NBA for hours on end, leading to a lifelong basketball passion for the younger thespian.
For the NBA, its entry into the Indian marketplace has been a long time coming. For years, the league has branched out into non-American markets, staking a sizeable claim in parts of Europe and, especially, in China. Now that India has begun opening up to sports other than cricket – baseball and American football have slowly seeped into India, too – and the NBA has its first Indian-origin team owner (Vivek Ranadive, of the Sacramento Kings), there’s no better time to come to India.
At the launch event, Bachchan was seen wearing a Los Angeles Lakers #24 jersey; that’s the jersey of NBA superstar Kobe Bryant, who has five championships to his name. The Lakers, however, have floundered over the last two seasons, and ended this regular season with a woeful record and a head coaching vacancy.
Bachchan knows plenty about career ups and downs, himself. After struggling during his initial years, he hit paydirt with the 2004 film Dhoom. Subsequent films brought him immense critical and commercial success until around 2009, when he began suffering a string of flops that threatened his career.
In December 2013, the third installment of the “Dhoom†series hit screens to incredibly huge numbers, quickly becoming the most financially successful Bollywood film of all-time in unadjusted numbers. Although the film’s success was credited more to series newcomers Aamir Khan and Katrina Kaif, the fact remains that Bachchan was the co-star of India’s most successful film.
He will next be seen alongside Shahrukh Khan and Deepika Padukone, both former co-stars, in Farah Khan’s Happy New Year, which is set to release this December.