Last week the last stop for the Rock Stars entourage—Salman Khan, John Abraham, Mallika Sherawat, Shahid Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor—turned out to be a nightmare that the stars aren't likely to forget.
"There was almost nil attendance!" says a shell-shocked source. " The show at Wembley in London had to be cancelled because there was hardly anyone there to see our so-called Rock Stars! In all 500-600 people turned up to watch our great entourage. You should've seen the expression on their faces.
On the evening before at Birmingham the attendance was hardly any better. There were around 15,00 people in all. Fortunately the show at Birmingham didn't have to be cancelled.
But what happened at Wembley has sobered and cautioned our entire Bollywood fraternity.I don't think the stars are likely to go on concert tours for a long long long time to come."
The worst blow was yet to come. Sahara India had acquired tv filming rights of the cancelled concert.
"Their expensive equipment and large crew had to return without any footage. There's a lot of financial accounting to be done. The organizers haven't even started counting their losses in the UK as yet," says the source.
So is it a no-no for Bollywood concerts abroad? "For others stars? Yes, they're unlikely to go for a long time after this experience," says the source. "But if it's a concert featuring Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek and Aishwarya Rai tickets will sell like hot cakes any time."
Salman Khan and John Abraham returned to Mumbai on Monday. Shahid and Kareena are expected back later during the week."