The IPL opening ceremony has over the years been one of the most spectacular extravaganzas where cricket meets entertainment and it will be no different this year either as the likes of Ranveer Singh, Tamannaah Bhatia and Jacqueline Fernandez among others will enthrall the fans with their performance in the 45-minute show that has been planned at the Wankhede Stadium prior to the start of the opening game between defending champions Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings on April 7.
It has been reported that Witchcraft has won the bid to stage the opening ceremony — which would also see a galaxy of former cricket stars, Bollywood and Indian Inc. This IPL opening will also see only two captains in MS Dhoni (Chennai Super Kings) and Rohit Sharma (Mumbai Indians) attending the ceremony.
The other six captains — Virat Kohli (Royal Challengers Bangalore), Ajinkya Rahane (Rajasthan Royals), Gautam Gambler (Delhi Daredevils), Ravichandran Ashwin (Kings XI), Dinesh Karthik (Kolkata Knight Riders) and David Warner (Hyderabad) will be skipping the event due to logistic reasons.
“Ranveer, Varun, Jacqueline, Parineeti and Tamannaah are some of the Bollywood stars who will set the stage on fire at the opening. Apart from that, you will also have the likes of Mika and Prabhudeva to entertain the fans. The idea is to not just give those at the ground a good time, but to also give those watching on television a show they will remember in the days to come,” the BCCI official was quoted as saying by CricketNext.
When asked about rumours that Ranveer is being paid a whopping Rs 5 crore for the performance at the opening ceremony the official refused to get into details.
“See, the budget is Rs 20 crore and that has been approved. Now, let us not get into minute details on who is being paid what for how long. As long as we are able to give you guys a show worth remembering, there shouldn’t be anything to complain about. We believe that this opening ceremony will just like in previous years, set the tone on what is expected to be a thrilling tournament over the next 50 days,” he said.
To celebrate the 10th edition of the IPL last year and engage more fans, all the eight teams got the chance to stage an opening ceremony with their first home game. The BCCI had also foot the expenses of those eight ceremonies.
