Sachin Tendulkar; “The god of cricket” is made to bleed for his ‘art’
As http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mahendra-Singh-Dhoni-c73820 pulled the plugs on a 48 million dollar marketing deal, it seemed as if the “Little Master” was left behind in his run for money; however, not any longer, as he soon inked a rather bizarre deal to ever take
place in the history of cricket. Tendulkar has accepted the proposal to print some special editions of his biography titled, the
Tendulkar Opus, which will be released in February next year.
These special editions will use the blood of Sachin Tendulkar on its pages. Kraken Opus, a publishing company that has, in the past, published books on Ferrari, Diego Maradona and Michael Jackson is owned by a former investment
banker, a certain Karl http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Fowler-c57076.
According to the official Kraken Opus website, it takes approximately two long years to create an Opus from conception to publication. The actual publication is also a painstaking task as it takes approximately ten weeks of proofing,
printing, binding, and packaging. The Tendulkar Opus is comprised of 852 gold edged pages, with the entire package weighing well over 37 Kilograms. It is said to hold some rare family pictures of the Little Master, rare memorabilia along with some shots of
the man in action.
Kraken Opus books are considered as a work of art. When the company took upon themselves to publish the Manchester United Opus, each copy fetched between 3000 to 4500 pounds. However, they have claimed that they will publish only
10 copies of the book that will contain a page with the blood of the legend, Sachin Tendulkar, himself.
The owner of the company Karl Fowler, during an official interview, stated, “The signature page will be mixed with Sachin's blood - mixed into the paper pulp so it's a red resin. It is what it is – you will have Sachin’s blood
on the page. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, it’s not to everyone’s taste and some may think it’s a bit weird. But the key thing here is that Sachin Tendulkar to millions of people is a religious icon, and we thought how, in a publishing form, can you get
as close to your god as possible?”
The 10 rare copies that include the blood of the great cricketer have been sold for 86000 dollars each, that is a little more than 50,000 pounds - which means that the 10 copies have been sold for at least half a million pounds.
The book reportedly contains roughly around 1500 exclusive images, comprises of more than 300,000 words and all of these books will be signed by Sachin Tendulkar himself. Along with the 10 unique books with Sachin’s own blood in them, the company will also
be publishing 1000 standard copies that will be priced around 2000 to 3500 US dollars.
In a press conference, Tendulkar announced the release of the Sachin Tendulkar Opus and answered various questions. Later, he gave his DNA sample during the live press conference. He thus became the first sportsman in history to
give a DNA sample - live - during a press conference. This DNA will then be converted into a piece of art using unique DNA technology, which will be two metres wide and multi coloured.
This is not the first time that blood ink has been used to help promote a certain publication since the 70’s rock band Kiss, donated vials of their very own blood to create red ink that was then used in a particular Marvel comic
book back in 1977.
On his personal website, Sachin noted that he has shied away from offers of doing books in the past since he felt that there was a lot more that had to be achieved in his career. However, now that he approaches the end of his 20-year
long career, aged 37, he feels that it was the right time to tell his story for the very first time.
“We’ve got lots of surprises lined up too, with contributions from lots of my friends, family team mates and opponents, and I’m sure it’s going to be something special,” he writes on the official Sachin Tendulkar Opus website.
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