West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee finally got a brand ambassador in Bollywood's King Khan to promote her debt-strapped state before the investors from across the globe. The video starring SRK showcases different aspects of the state right from the hills of northern Bengal, the mighty Ganga to Sundarbans forests - the world's largest mangrove reserve and the best-known home for Royal Bengal Tigers.
"There is something special about Bengal," says Shah Rukh Khan in the video who is shown emerging like a super hero out of the dark and hands over a golden magic ball to children. The song played in the celluloid advertisement as background music is a very well-known number by Tagore Banglar mati, Banglar jol (Bengal's soil, Bengal's water) - an all time favourite of the CM. It has been sung by Bollywood singer Shaan.
The video comes with a tagline - Notun Bangla, Progotir Bangla (A new Bengal, a resurgent Bengal). Sources said the commercial was the brainchild of Mamata Banerjee who took interest to personally select the song and other visuals for the ad film, toeing the line of Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi who roped in Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan as the brand ambassador for his state. The advertisement was directed by filmmaker Aniruddha Roychowdhury.
The ad shows different areas where major investments can take place. These area, shown in the commercial, are agriculture, manufacturing industry, education, information technology, tourism, art and culture and medicine. The populist didi had appealed to the Bollywood superstar to be the brand ambassador of her state. She had given the proposal when SRK came to inaugurate Kolkata international film festival last year. Though the state government officials refused to disclose the cost for making the commercial sources said Shah Rukh Khan voluntarily came forward and gave his time for making the ad film.
SRK has a long association with West Bengal ever since he took the franchise of IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) which won the tournament in season-5 this year. The team KKR, including King Khan and co-owner Juhi Chawla, received a grand welcome by Banerjee at the Eden Gardens stadium amid thousands of cheering crowd and Trinamool Congress supporters.
In a desperate attempt to woo investment, Banerjee had met industrialists on two different occasions last year to attract investments in Bengal. The much-needed effort to restore confidence came as the industry-state government interaction but unfortunately it yielded no positive result.
The highly-publicised meetings practically failed to convince the investors' fraternity of what kind of assistance they would be provided with if they would prefer West Bengal as their next investment destination. As a result: Mamata's tall claims to industrialise Bengal virtually fell flat. After becoming the railways minister in 2009, Banerjee had held a similar meeting with industrialists in Kolkata to adopt certain schemes for industrial development for the railways with a focus on West Bengal. Sources said that the Bengal Leads campaign will be launched before the Puja (Durga puja) highlighting various potential of the state government.
