Entrepreneur Sanjana Reddy cottoned on to the Big race weekend idea and roped in Sachin Tendulkar for a new racing league for India's newly converted sport afficionados as consumption lifestyle catches on in urban mobile India

The new league(i1 racing) has already sold 4 of the 8 franchises roping in SRK and Dabur's Mohit Burman from the obvious inspiration (though different cash flows, Mohit sld his Kings XI/RR stake partly) More bollywood/tollywood stars have been lined up with Nagarjuna teaming up for Hyderabad

 

The racing league, owned by Machdar Motor Sports Company, will have eight city-based teams with two cars forming a 16-member grid. Sachin and Sanjana Reddy together have bought a 26% share in the league.

The cost of a franchise-for a contractual term of 15 years-will be around $20m with investors having to pay $5m upfront and the remaining in $1 million tranches during the ownership period. The races will feature F1 and upcoming Indian drivers and will be held in Delhi, Abu Dhabi, Kuala Lumpur, Doha and Bahrain.

Shah Rukh, along with business partners Juhi Chawla and Jai Mehta, will own the Mumbai franchise, while Dabur's Mohit Burman is on the verge of buying the Delhi franchise. Malaysian business tycoon and Air Asia boss Tony Fernandes along with UK-based hedge fund manager S G Srinivas is set for the Chennai team.

It remains to be seen however how many drivers will turn up for the teams and if there will be bidding for driving scalps at this juncture. Sponsors may not get the luxury to wait for a trial edition of the league to complete