Salman dances with the towel, up for auction on eBay, as Farah claps

Mumbai, Aug. 27: The man whose public spats are legendary now has his dirty linen raking in the moolah.

A yellow towel Bollywood star Salman Khan used in one of his films has gone for sale on a live auction on eBay — the online buy-and-sell portal — and his fans have been shooting up the price of the piece of linen to record levels.

The highest bid for the towel that Salman wore and danced with in the song Jeene Ke Hain Chaar Din from his 2004 hit Mujhse Shaadi Karogi shot up from Rs 1.42 lakh on Wednesday to Rs 1.46 lakh today, and stood at Rs 1.54 lakh this evening, according to eBay officials.

Salman, known as Bollywood’s bad boy for his mercurial temperament, brought the towel at the launch episode of choreographer-director Farah Khan’s new celebrity chat show, Tere Mere Beach Mein, on STAR Plus, telecast on Sunday.

Farah had choreographed the song in the David Dhawan film.

The chat show features two celebrities in every episode, and each would bring a personal memorabilia that would be auctioned on eBay. The proceeds of the charity auction would go to a Mumbai-based NGO, Society for Nutrition, Education, and Health Action (Sneha).

The auction for the towel began on Monday morning, with a base price of Rs 1,001, and the bids from Salman fans have been climbing with every passing day.

“This evening, the auction has got 2,280 page views and 53 bidders based in Hong Kong, US, UK, Germany and India have participated so far. The highest bid now stands at Rs 1,54,003. The auction will close at 9am on August 30,” said Deepa Thomas, eBay India’s senior manager (pop culture).

“The towel may be actually costing a few hundred rupees, but the value for it is created because Salman used it in the rehearsals of the popular song in the film. It is a testament to Salman’s popularity,” said Thomas.

After Salman’s towel, the auction will feature a Gavin Miguel evening dress that Priyanka Chopra wore for one of her film premieres. Olympic gold medallist Vijendra Singh, who accompanied Priyanka on the show, has pledged his favourite boxing gloves for the auction.

Bollywood star Bipasha Basu will donate her favourite training shoes, while actress-turned-entrepreneur Shilpa Shetty will donate an eco-friendly torch that uses no batteries, and an autographed ball of her IPL team Rajasthan Royals. Salman, too, is planning to buy an IPL team.