Mumbai Stars Cash Hot Realty, Endorsements

ESTERYEAR actor Jeetendra, also a promoter of Balaji Telefilms, created a splash recently selling off two family-owned pieces of prime real estate in Mumbai's sought-after suburb of Andheri for a humungous ₹855 crore.

- GURBIR SINGH

The 2.4-acre property, which currently houses the Balaji IT Park, and a few commercial buildings, was sold to NTT Global Data Centers.

While this deal was the talk of the town because of its size, it was not the only celebrity sell-off. Mumbai in recent months has seen a spate of high-value sales by Bollywood actors and cricketers. Earlier, Amitabh Bachchan was in the news for selling a large duplex apartment in a building called 'Atlantis', located in the suburb of Andheri, for ₹83 crore.

In March, actor Akshay Kumar made a splash with the sale of two residential units in a gated community called 'Oberoi Sky City', in the north-west suburb of Borivali, for ₹6.6 crore. He followed it up in April with the sale of a 1,200 sq ft commercial office space in 'One Place Lodha' for ₹8 crore.

Abhishek Bachchan, also a big real estate player in the Mumbai market, meanwhile, is in the process of offloading a prime duplex apartment on the 40th and 41st floor of one of the towers in Planet Godrej, in the Mahalaxmi area of south Mumbai. Purchased from Godrej Properties (GPL) around 12 years ago, Bachchan Junior has been leasing the apartment at high rentals.

Portfolio rejig However, these sales do not herald the exit of the stars from the real estate market. They are deals to cash out of some properties when the going is good, while they rejig their portfolio.