Speaking to Raj Shamani on his podcast, Modi told, “Everybody can bid for all the teams. The main attraction for Shahrukh Khan was to bid for Ahmedabad or Mumbai. At that time, he did not get it, he gave a low number. He got Kolkata. His first choice was Mumbai but Mukesh Ambani took Mumbai. Bangalore was Shahrukh's second choice but Vijay Mallya took it. His third choice was Delhi, but that too got given to someone else. His speech was very low. Their bid was 70-80 million and all these cities were worth 100 million. Kolkata's bid was Rs 85-87 million and that's what they got.”

During the same conversation, Lalit Modi admitted that Shah Rukh Khan was important for the IPL as his presence used to fill the stadium with women and children. Speaking further, she said, “For me, Shahrukh was about bringing women and children into the game. Women and children were extremely important for the IPL to be successful in terms of viewership. I told myself that I need Shahrukh Khan to bring people to the stadium. In the first year, we had to pay celebrities to come and participate. In the second year, he himself came. The third year, they wanted us to invite them to the game because everyone wanted to be a part of the game. In the first year, after seeing Shahrukh Khan, someone made Deepika their brand ambassador, someone made someone else the brand ambassador, someone made Akshay Kumar their brand ambassador. “Film stars brought a lot to the game.”