Amitabh Bachchan to launch his own NFT collection in November

Bollywood's angry young man has taken the lead once again. Amitabh Bachchan will be rolling out his own NFTs (non-fungible tokens), becoming the first Indian actor to do so at a time when the world has taken a shine to digital assets -- over $2.5 billion worth of NFTs have already been sold globally.

Bachchan will roll out his NFTs - a collection of unique and limited artworks themed around him, including posters such as that of Sholay autographed by him, verses of 'Madhushala' narrated by him with backstories, and rare digital treasures from the past - on the BeyondLife.club platform.

The platform is a partnership between Rhiti Entertainment and No Code NFT Exchange Platform - GuardianLink.io. "I have joined Rhiti Entertainment, Singapore and will be launching NFT's soon on the platform," Bachchan commented on the partnership.

The auction for the NFTs will take place in the first week of November. In order to participate in it, you just need to log on to BeyondLife.Club, bid during the auction, exceed or meet the reserve price and become the proud owner of a unique NFT. You can always trade or auction it off later. The site is allowing the use of debit and credit cards for making payments during the auction.

In fact, since the auction is sometime off, the site is also requesting fans to provide suggestions for the kind of NFTs they would like Bachchan to create. "It could be an audio clip, a signed poster or even a meet and greet. Go wild," says the website.

Arun Pandey, MD and Chairman, Rhiti Group said on launching the NFT in partnership with Bachchan: "Artists are latching up to this technology to create value around their life and work, which was almost dormant earlier. Our biggest motivation behind this venture is to empower artists, celebs and athletes globally and at the same time help the diehard fans to get their hands over the purest form of the content."
 
Rhiti Group is a company that deals in celebrity and sports marketing, talent management, films and entertainment. The company represents sports stars like MS Dhoni, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Kedar Jadhav.

Also read: WazirX announces India's 1st NFT marketplace amid crypto boom

What are NFTs?

An NFT is a digital asset that represents real-world objects such as art, music, videos, in-game items, etc. It is bought and sold online mostly with cryptocurrencies. It's generally encoded with the same underlying software as many cryptos - blockchain. NFTs are tracked on blockchain to provide the buyer proof of ownership. Once an NFT sells, the creator receives an amount in the form of cryptocurrency.

While cryptocurrencies can be exchanged and/or transferred to one another, NFTs are unique and can't be exchanged with another item. Moreover, cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin can be broken down into smaller units known as Satoshi (100-millionth of a bitcoin). On the other hand, NFTs cannot be broken down as they exist as a whole. NFT allows the buyer to own an original item. It contains in-built authentication, which serves as proof of ownership. This makes them highly collectable.

WazirX, a domestic crypto startup, also recently launched an NFT for over 300 creators including photographers, canvas artists, 3D artists, digital artists and street artists. Internationally, celebrities such as rapper Snoop Dogg, comedian Ellen Degeneres, actresses Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton, and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, among others, have also ventured into NFT.

The most expensive NFT was sold by Christie's in March this year. Created by famous digital artist Mike Winklemann, better known as "Beeple", it is a composite of 5,000 daily drawings called Everydays, which sold at Christie's for a record-breaking $69.3 million.

Also read: NFT market surges to $2.5 billion in first-half of 2021