Hyderabad: Telangana government is seriously considering to rope in Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan as brand ambassor of the state exclusively for the purpose of promoting industries in the state.
Though the government has appointed Hyderabadi tennis star Sania Mirza as brand ambassador in July, she could not take part in any promotional acitivity so far due to her busy tennis schedule.
While handing over a letter of appointment and also a cheque of Rs 1 crore to Sania at an interactive session with industrialists in the city in July, Mr Rao claimed that she will promote the “new state’s interests” in India and abroad.
However, Sania was not seen at any promotional activity as she was away abroad for the most part of the period since July to take part in various tennis tournaments.
With the Telangana government planning to host “Partnership Sum-mit” by inviting 160 countries in early 2015 during March-April, the government wants to utilise the services of Bachchan to attract investors across the globe to the new state.
Official sources said preliminary discussions in this regard were held when the actor met the CM last week in Hyderabad. The deal is likely to be finalised soon after another round of meeting to be held sometime during January-February.
Bachchan came to city last week to receive the ANR Award and he met Mr Chandrasekhar Rao for over half-an-hour at his camp office in Begumpet.
Mr Rao had remarked, “I have watched almost all your old movies. Abimaan and Muqaddar ka Sikandar were my favourite films and I watched them nearly 50 times.”
The actor thanked Mr Rao for this and offered his services to develop Telangana by saying that, “As brand ambassador of Gujarat, I was successful in earning good reputation for the state globally. I am ready to offer my services for Telangana if you are willing to utilise.”
Mr Rao reportedly told Mr Bachchan that the TS government would be more than happy to appoint him as brand ambassador. Both have agreed to work out the modalities in the next meeting.
The TS government recently approved its new industrial policy “TS-iPASS” in the Assembly claiming it to be the world’s best industrial policy with single window clearance system committing to give all the industrial approvals within three weeks with ‘zero political and bureaucratic corruption”.
