Under the hammer

Online auction of Bollywood collectibles is the rage

Naomi lives in Japan and is a big fan of Bollywood. While her friends look forward to watching new Hindi movies that feature their favourite star Salman Khan, Naomi surfs the Internet to check out if any of Khan's memorabilia from his film Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam is available for online purchase.

With growing interest and fascination for anything Bollywood among the 20 million Indian disapora, website companies such as Baazee.com have set up a permanent gallery at their site to facilitate the auction of Bollywood wares "" whether dresses, shoes or even glasses "" that might have been worn by stars in popular films. Apart from Baazee, others websites such as Indiatimes, Rediff or a Yahoo also conduct similar auctions, although less frequently.

According to Rajesh Seth, a trading assistant at Baazee.com, Bollywood garments have a huge potential in the overseas market.

"The majority of the response comes from affluent Indians living abroad. Inquiries come in from all over the US, Canada and South Africa," says Seth. While the demand is still slow in India, inquiries are picking up in metro cities like Delhi and Mumbai as well.

Seth says within six months of launching the online auction, Preity Zinta's white crystal-spangled wedding dress from the movie Dil Chahta Hai got sold for Rs 35,000 as did the scooter that Hrithik Roshan rode in Koi Mil Gaya.

Similarly, Shah Rukh Khan's orange and black sunglasses from the movie Duplicate got picked up for Rs 17,500. The green sari that Madhuri Dixit wore in Hum Aapke Hai Kaun also got sold for Rs 30,000.

While costumes worn by Kareena Kapoor and Hrithik Roshan are among the more popular, 'item number' outfits receive an equal number of inquiries.

"But Baazee does not auction item number dresses as what looks good on the stars may not look good on ordinary people," says Seth.

Generally, prices of the dresses begin at the base price of Rs 2,000-3,000, which can scale up depending on a star's popularity.

For instance, Hrithik Roshan's colourful shirt from the movie Koi Mil Gaya has a reserve price of Rs 10,000. Currently, 550 clothes worn by Bollywood actors are on display at the Baazee site and a product is open for auction for 15 days after it's listed.

Earlier, most film producers used to pass on dresses used in films to the actors. But with the potential of making extra money, producers are now keen to turn this into a business proposition. Seth has currently struck a deal with film producers Rakesh Roshan and Sooraj Barjatiya for their films Koi Mil Gaya and Hum Apke Hain Kaun, respectively.

But Seth admits that convincing the Bollywood producers isn't easy. "Besides, when one sells Bollywood clothes, authentication has to be ensured. On occasions, we have had to request film-producers to sign an authentication certification. The producers were reluctant to sign this at first, relented later," says Seth.

Seth, a network consultant by profession, started trading with music, books, garments and jewellery on the Baazee site in 2001. Six months ago he hit upon the idea of trading in Bollywood clothes for a transfer fee of 3-5 per cent.

Seth, however, declined to quote his sales and his earnings for fear that producers may reduce his transfer fee.

"Sometimes I lose out as well, when clothes sell for less than their worth," he says. But for the present, business is good as he has recently been requested by television producers to also auction television stars' clothes.