Britannia, Aamir to launch promo  ( August '28,2001, HBL)

FANCY a game of cricket with Bollywood's latest badshah Aamir `Lagaan' Khan and his cricket team from the blockbuster? Zip across to your friendly neighbourhood grocer and buy yourself a pack of Britannia Tiger biscuits and you might just find yourself amongst the 15 lucky blokes who can play against the Lagaan team later this year!

Britannia Industries and savvy actor-filmmaker-businessman Aamir Khan are all set to kick off a joint promo which will see the company get a larger bite of the cookie market while Khan will see his movie making inroads into smaller towns and villages where it has not yet made an impact.

The Rs 6-crore joint promo, which will be kicked off on September 1, will see 15 lucky winners, selected on the basis of special numbers contained in `Britannia Lagaan booklets' which will accompany purchases of 75 gm/100 gm packs of the biscuit, pitched against the Lagaan eleven who brought down the might of the British in a nailbiting match sequence in the movie.

``The whole idea is to bring together Britannia which has a strong brand association with cricket which is a national passion and the Lagaan team who are currently national heroes,'' Mr Harish Lalchandani, Product Manager, said. Fifteen contestants who get the winning numbers in their booklets will be flown to Mumbai along with a companion to play against the Lagaan team led by Aamir at a match to be held in the city on December 23, he added.

Britannia has already commenced a countrywide multimedia campaign with teaser ads, theme and follow-up commercials on television among other things to promote the campaign. The match will see contest winners playing the Lagaan eleven, dressed in their costumes in the movie, playing the match to an audience comprising special invitees only.