MOST WANTED: Shah Rukh Khan

A Tollywood debut can wait, but the Badshah of Bollywood is busy sealing business deals with companies in Calcutta — which he often describes as his “second home” — after having put his money where his mouth is, with Kolkata Knight Riders.

The owner of KKR and the brand ambassador of Emami has padded up for city-based hosiery major Lux Group to endorse a new range of vests and also promote KKR co-branded T-shirts from the Lux stable.

“We have been trying to get Shah Rukh Khan for the last six months as our brand ambassador. He agreed to our proposal and also gave us the idea of launching KKR co-branded T-shirts,” said Ashok Todi, one of the promoters of the Rs 400-crore Lux Group.

Shah Rukh’s friend and Bollywood biggie Manish Malhotra helped in designing the T-shirts, which would be sold at Rs 250 a piece after a formal launch in Calcutta next week.

Using the company tag line — “yeh andar ki baat hai” — Todi dodged questions on the size of the deal with King Khan but did make it clear that the KKR boss was poised to expand his scope of involvement with his second home. “He was enquiring about taking up space in Rajarhat for a full-fledged KKR office building. Shah Rukh told me that he also wanted to book a flat for himself in the city,” added Todi, eyeing a Rs 1,000-crore turnover in three years riding Brand SRK.

According to him, the company’s Calcutta connection may have helped in signing up Shah Rukh for a three-year contract. For the Lux Group, one of the key players in the Rs 5,000-crore organised hosiery industry, the association will give it a new identity besides helping market development. With over 650 distributors across the country, Lux Group is listed in the Calcutta and Ahmedabad stock exchanges.

Bollywood hunks Suneil Shetty and Sunny Deol have earlier endorsed Lux products but the 52-year-old company, starting out from a small shop in Burrabazar, is now eyeing a “trendy and contemporary” positioning. So besides signing up Shah Rukh, youth icon Neil Nitin Mukesh has been signed on to promote its GenX brand of T-shirts.

All these promotional plans — pegged at Rs 35 crore a year — are the brainchild of Priyanka Todi, 25, who is heading the marketing initiative of the company. “It was my daughter’s idea to bring Shah Rukh on board…. He is the best,” said Ashok Todi.