25/10/2021 Bollywood stars, Indian celebrities launch NFTs amid global craze

Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan leaves after attending the wedding ceremony of Isha Ambani, the daughter of the Chairman of Reliance Industries Mukesh Ambani, in Mumbai, India, December 13, 2018. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas/File Photo

MUMBAI, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Indian celebrities from the world of Bollywood and cricket are increasingly launching digital memorabilia through non-fungible tokens (NFT), hoping to rake in thousands of dollars by cashing in on growing interest in such assets.

NFTs are a type ofdigital assetwhich use blockchain to record the ownership of items such as images, videos and other collectibles. Their roaring popularity has baffled many but the explosive growth shows no sign of abating.

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Bollywood superstars such asAmitabh BachchanandSalman Khanare planning to launch NFTs soon. While Bachchan's NFTs will include autographed posters of his movies, Khan has been building excitement on his Twitter account by telling his 43 million followers about the planned NFT launch.

"NFTs are right now alien to Bollywood but I am sure they (film stars) will see this as another platform where they can use their existing content and generate revenue," said Ayaan Agnihotri of Bollycoin, an NFT marketplace for Bollywood assets.

Agnihotri said that within days of launch this month, his platform sold 8 million of the 20 million available so-called "BollyCoins", crypto tokens that can be used to buy NFTs when they are launched. One BollyCoin is worth 10 U.S. cents.

But its still early days for celebrity NFTs in India.

Indian cricketer Dinesh Karthik is auctioninga digital art reelfrom a cricket match where he hit a match-winning six on the last ball for around 5 ethereums, a digital currency, worth around $20,000. But he has yet to receive any bids.

"NFT has picked up a lot in the West in the last one year with now iconic moments from basketball being bought by fans digitally, which gave us the idea," Karthik told Reuters.

Others have had success. One of India's top fashion designers, Manish Malhotra, recently sold NFTs of digital sketches of some of his most famous creations for $4,000 a piece. Malhotra's website shows one can purchase some of his bridal wear outfits at a lower price range of $2,500-$3,500.

The rise of NFTs has baffled many who say it makes little sense to spend large sums of money on items that don't physically exist and can simply be viewed online.

Still, global sales volumes of NFTs have galloped to $10.7 billion in the third quarter of 2021, making an eightfold increase from the previous quarter, data from market tracker DappRadar showed.

Vishakha Singh, vice president for NFTs at Indian crypto exchange WazirX, said celebrity participation in the segment is set to create excitement in the space.

This, she said, "is great for the ecosystem. This will help us in garnering more awareness towards this new game changing world of digital assets," Singh said.

Arts

https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/bollywood-stars-indian-celebrities-launch-nfts-amid-global-craze-2021-10-24/

Interesting NFTs
taNNa
conceptual art. drawing and digitally processed.
2.0
2.0
Do Nothing (new variant) #7/15
Sometimes
Stay Free (Edward Snowden, 2021)
This unique, signed work combines the entirety of a landmark court decision ruling the National Security Agency's mass surveillance violated the law, with the iconic portrait of the whistleblower by Platon (used with permission). It is the only known NFT produced by Snowden. Produced using open source software. This auction is on behalf of Freedom of the Press Foundation. https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/appeals-court-strikes-down-nsa-phone-spying-program-aclu-lawsuit
It’s not a teardrop, it’s blue paint
Have you thought about why water drops are always being visually portrayed in the color blue, yet, in reality, water is not blue, it’s clear. This illustration is a visual experiment with semiotics - the study of signs and symbols, their usage, and interpretation. Here, I used blue, black, and pink colors to create this visual interplay and interaction between the concepts of sign, context, designed meaning, and intended response. Your eye might be drawn to the blue teardrop shape on her face, then interpret that as a drop of water, according to your everyday visual experience. But if you read my title, it says, "It's not a teardrop, it’s blue paint." Similar to René Magritte's surreal painting "The Treachery of Images" a.k.a "This is not a pipe", where the image consists of a drawing of a pipe and a line where Magritte wrote, "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" ("This is not a pipe"), this painting is a visual trick, the writing invites us to recognize that what appears to be a pip, is not really a pipe: it is an illusion, nothing more than paint on a flat surface. Similarly, by making the title "It's a teardrop, it’s blue paint." I want to invite the audience to step out of their conditional interpretation according to the "norms," which are the majority of societal beliefs, and step into something new and whimsical. It is intended to be a playful visual experience for the viewers to experience the tension between words and image, nature and artifice, truth and fiction, reality and surreality.