A small village located on the border of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana (both Indian states) is proof of how important Bollywood is to India’s mindscape. Ever since teaser advertisements of actor-producer Aamir Khan’s latest offering, Peepli Live, started being beamed on TV, land prices in the picturesque stretch of farmland have started going up. The village’s only claim to borrowed fame is that it is also called Peepli.

The Bollywood angle to real estate fortunes is not a new one. Prices of flats and areas tend to shoot up when a Bollywood celebrity stops by. Wai in Maharashtra’s hinterland became fashionable after film-maker Prakash Jha shot one of his rural masterpieces (Mrityudand) there. Similarly, flat prices in La Mer building at upmarket Bandra soared after cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and actor Aishwarya Rai bought flats there.

However, the latest episode of Bollywood magic can be seen in Peepli. In the last one month, inquiries for the purchase of farmlands have gone up. Ditto with marriage proposals for bachelors. The demand for land in Peepli is good, fetching higher prices than other neighbouring areas. There is a 33% jump, from Rs 20 lakh per acre to Rs 30 lakh.

Bhopal has also been affected by Bollywood, post-Raajneeti. In Mumbai, according to real estate agents, the buying rate of a “celebrity building” is often hiked even if it is artificially inflated in some cases. After Kangana Ranaut bought a penthouse in Bandra, the rate of the building shot up by 15%. Ad film-maker Prahlad Kakkar recalls how the rates of La Mer, where he stays, increased after Tendulkar and Rai moved in. He said, “Overnight, the rates shot up by 25%. I feel the reason was more to do with the free security that the building got. Sachin has a Z-security cover.”

But the Bollywood lift to the real estate market has its downside too. For instance, the death of a celebrity severely affects the rates of the house. After actor Priya Rajvansh died, it was difficult for her brother to sell the house; and the flat in which producer Neeraj Grover was murdered allegedly by navy man Emile Jerome and aspiring actor Maria Susairaj finally had a distress sale. It is also alleged that no one wanted to buy the flat in which Ramgopal Varma shot his horror film Bhoot. Most of these flats have to be sold at distress prices and often, they are only bought by those who are interested in them as an investment and don’t plan on staying there. Families will never buy such homes because they feel they are jinxed.

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