Bidding for stars of Bajirao Mastani for charity; Fly with VIP idea gains traction across genres

Ever dreamed of meeting up with Deepika Padukone or Priyanka Chopra in private? Well, there is a chance and there is a cost too but for a good cause. Fly with VIP has come up with a unique idea of initiating a bid among fans who wants to have a tete-e-tete with their favourite star in the upcoming film Bajirao Mastani.

As this piece is being written, the top bid to have a chat with Deepika Padukone has reached Rs 1,56,550. By 10th December, when the auction closes, the figure could be much higher. Online bids for other actors are also on. It is Rs 1,67,205 for Priyanka Chopra, Rs 1,30,555 for Ranbir Singh and for a chat with director Sanjay Leela Bhansai, the bid has reached Rs 1,17,825. About 85 percent of the proceeds will go to Bengaluru-based NGO, Akshay Patra Foundation for charity that provides mid-day meals to over 1.4 million children from 10,845 schools across 10 states in India. The remaining 15 percent of the proceeds will go to Fly with VIP.

Meeting up with one’s favourite heroes is a desire that most die-hard fans nurture and consider it a dream come true if they get a chance to shake hands or even talk to celebrities that they admire.

The idea

Fly with VIP, a company in India, that was co-founded in 2013 by Gautam Chhabria and Harman Baweja, an actor from the Hindi film industry, help fans to connect with their favourite heroes across genres – business, sports, films, etc – when they bid for a ticket through auction and get a chance to fly with the celebrity first class and spend time with the person without any distractions. There is a caveat: the celebrity decides how much time they are willing to spend on the flight with the fan. No personal questions can be asked.

Gautam Chhabria, co-founder and CEO, Fly with VIP came with his idea on noticing a passenger’s surprise first and then excited conversation in an economy seat with his co-passenger, Infosys chairman emeritus Narayana Murthy. That set off a business idea in him to auction seats with a celebrity and give a major part of the proceeds to a charity of the celebrity’s choice.

Soon after, Chhabria started a start-up and later went on to found another. However, in the process Chhabria realised he needs a mentor and what better choice than Murthy himself. “Seeing the number of start-ups in India, I felt that all these founders would like to be mentored or given advice by the likes of Murthy or someone as successful and known in the sector,” Chhabria said.

The only option available then for Chhabria was to drop a mail to the Infosys founder, which his assistant, he says, would re-direct to any of Murthy’s 200 other assistants to respond to. “I was looking for mentorship or advice from Mr Murthy and his assistants could not provide me that,” said Chhabria.

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Chhabria would volunteer for Akshay Patra, the NGO. “It is an indescribable experience to be able to contribute to Akshay Patra. I must have gone to Bengaluru 200 times in four years to offer whatever services I could to the NGO. Attendance shoots up in every school that Akshay Patra gives mid day meals and so does literacy,” says Chhabria.

Infosys Foundation contributes grants and funds to Akshay Patra and supports the mid day meal schemes wherever the organisation has its presence. When Mr Chhabria informed the VP of Akshay Patra of his desire to meet with Mr Murthy, he was willing to help him.

Mr Chhabria was told of a charity programme in Kolkata that Mr Murthy was compering. Seizing the opportunity, he flew from Mumbai to Kolkatta. “However, when I got to the hall, I found 200 eminent businessmen standing in a queue to shake hands with Mr Murthy. I got just 30 seconds like everyone else in the room –not enough time to even get a selfie! However, Mr Murty raised Rs 4.5 crore that night for Akshay Patra.”

Dejected, Chhabria took the early morning flight to Mumbai. On that flight and sitting just a row in front of him in the economy class was Mr Murthy. “I noticed that the passenger seated besides him was shocked first on seeing Mr Murthy. After 15 minutes of awkward silence, he started talking with Mr Murthy. They spoke all through the remaining 2.15 hours of the flight and when the flight landed at Mumbai, both exchanged cards. Mr Murty invited the passenger to Bengaluru with his wife! That gave me the germ for my business idea,” narrates Mr Chhabria.

Mr Chhabria jostled his way to meet Mr Murthy and presented his business idea of flying with VIPs and contributing proceeds towards a charity of the celebrity’s choice. Mr Murthy was encouraging and offered to give all his flights, around 200 yearly, for the cause. Chhabria was called to Bengaluru and the result was Fly with VIP, the company. So far 300 celebrities from across 14 different genres – India Inc, sports, films, etc – have signed up for it. Once a celebrity signs up, he/she brings in more people from the fraternity to the company for the program.

The program

There are three ways to bid for a seat. One is through the auction model where the highest bidder wins and get an opportunity to fly with the celebrity.

“I felt that there are students who would like to get mentored by industrialistis. They would not be able to pay auction money and hence for them there is the raffle model where by paying Rs 100, you have a chance of winning a business class ticket, hotel stay –  all on the house,” says Mr Chhabria.

The third is the contest model, where a candidate keeps answering questions and the one who gets the highest score wins. Each answer has to be sent by sms that costs Rs 2.

The company was started with a 90:10 ratio of personal investment between Chhabria and Baweja respectively; besides raising Rs eight crores from various prominent industrialists in their personal capacity, says Chhabria.

The company expects revenues in 2016-17 to touch Rs 50 crores.