A 1000 crore for Bollywood, zero strategy

Dr B K Modi, the head honcho at Spice Entertainment, recently announced that he is going to invest 1000 crores in Bollywood. Even as poor box-office reports of his first home production No Problem trickle in, Spice Entertainment joins the formidable list of moneyed corporates like Mahindra and Mahindra, Applause Entertainment ( Birla Group), Raymonds and Tata Infomedia, which misunderstand the machinery of Bollywood. All barring Spice have shut shop.

So what was initially planned as a huge success party for their grand Bollywood debut finally got cancelled after hectic SMSes were sent to all and sundry.

The party that never happened was supposed to be a huge event designed by Cineyug, with the Who's Who of Bollywood, politics and society in attendance . Billed at almost a crore the event is as much of a monetary loss as a PR disaster.

However, Modi chooses to call this a house warming party for his new Juhu residence. The flamboyant tycoon, who has lived in Beverly Hills and Singapore, and who is shifting to India after a decade, adds, "I decided to club it up with a grand house warming party at my place. But when I visited my home I realised it was unfinished. I am sorry that I had to cancel it at the last minute. We will definitely have it in February."

When asked about the huge losses he incurred for cancelling the party he replies, "I can't lose my reputation. That would be a bigger loss for me."

A debut dud called No Problem; Buddha, a 300-crore international project that's been waiting to take off for the last 10 years; an expensive no-show party— a lesser man would have been truly frazzled by all this. Guess here's a man with lots of moolah but in need of an events planner and a movie business strategist. Any takers?