With Shahrukh Khan and Vijay Mallaya, India enters Forumula One in Style

None other then Shah Rukh Khan has been roped in by Vijay Mallaya as the face of Team Force India for coming season of formula starting next year. Starting December 26, campaigning begins for gaining support of Indian masses for Force India team. The details of campaign are not made public but sources say that the theme message is on the lines of 'powered by a billion hearts and souls'

"While exploring various options, we thought the fastest way to announce our arrival in the country is to use Shah Rukh Khan as the team's brand ambassador. He is famous, successful and the most potent icon of young and confident India. Those are the same values that the team is trying to project on the biggest stage of motor sports. The advertising campaign will convey the message that India has arrived," said Vikram Malhotra, marketing head of Force India, reports TOI .

India with it's billion plus population, has known or patronized only one sport and that is cricket. Somehow many other sports were grossly neglected. Some sports like motor sports and water sports are unheard of by ordinary Indian.

It is also ironic that on one hand, Tata is all set to buy Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford, where as in India there is a complete apathy about motor sports. Even after Narayan Karthikeyans debut in Formula 1, it was only the younger generation that talked about motor sports. That too died out soon.

But it looks like things will change in coming days. Especially when such big names get involved in promoting Force India team. Earlier in late September this year, Mallaya became the boss of Spyker. Since then he has been trying to set up a system that will be able to deliver on the race track. It's only the 2008 season that will tell whether all the hype will translate in some tangible achievement against well established teams that lead F1.

It will be really exciting to see the campaign and Indian Tri-colour on the racetracks in coming season.

Source