Author Mitrajit Bhattacharya
It’s quite common to see full page ads splashed in magazines and billboards with large close-ups of Hollywood and sports celebrities selling luxury products. You can count the number of A-listers who aren’t endorsing a luxe brand on your fingers. It’s a symbiotic relationship where the stars and the brands benefit from the shared imagery equally, symbolising aspiration for the brand’s millions of existing and potential customers. Some chosen high value customers even get invited to attend special events like a movie premiere or visit to an F1 paddock where they can rub shoulders with the otherwise elusive movie or sports celebrities, who happen to endorse the particular brand. Some perks of buying expensive products, I guess.
However, not all endorsements go right. Many a time, you will find a celebrity wearing a different brand in private as the fitment isn’t right in the first place. The dilemma for brands is that most saleable stars are already taken. Only a well thought out strategy and deep connection between the brand and the celebrity can lead to a longstanding and mutually beneficial association.
One such fabulous association has been between the watchmakers Breitling from Grenchen – a sleepy hamlet near Biel in Switzerland - and the Hollywood superstar John Travolta. The close relationship lasted for nearly one and half decades, till recently, not only because Travolta is a movie star with millions of fans all over the world. He is also an accomplished commercial pilot holding ten different licenses, perfect for Breitling’s lineage is in aviation.
The brand not only makes simple as well as complex timepieces for aviators, they also own a fleet of aircrafts including the Czech made L-39 Albatross fighter jets.
I have been lucky to have flown in one of them in 2010, the same year I met Travolta. While the Breitling jets had never done their sorties in India and I had to travel to Switzerland to fly with them, my meeting with Travolta was scheduled right here in Mumbai. He is not an ordinary person to fly commercial or a chartered; he flew his own aircraft, a huge Boeing 707 with just five family members and a pet on board.
Journey with Movies
Within minutes of meeting the Saturday Night Fever star I noticed how soft spoken he was; I almost had to strain my ears to even listen to him. However, every word he spoke was crystal clear both in diction and gravity of thought. He was barely 24, when he had got an Oscar nod for his role in the legendary movie. His movie career had many ups and downs before he made a huge comeback with Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction. He never looked back with stupendously successful releases in Face Off, Get Shorty, A Civil Action, The General’s Daughters, Ladder 49, Broken Arrow and many more.
Actor, Dancer or Pilot?
“My skillsets complement each other, different facets of my personality help shape each other,” declared Travolta. He continued, “I spent most of my childhood flying. My family was involved in show business. I was constantly going to the airport to either see them off or pick them up. As a family, we used to travel all over America to catch Broadway shows. I just loved being up in the air. I got my first pilot’s license at the age of 19 and since then I am flying.”
Favourite Aircraft
Travolta had 10 commercial flying licenses and owned five aircrafts at the time of our meeting in 2010. On being asked to choose his favourite aircraft, he answered, “This one’s a difficult choice. It depends on my mood. Sometimes, it’s fun to be on a huge jet while at other times, it is fun to be on a two-seater microlight. I love all of them. The most important thing is to fly in the skies. It’s an indescribable feeling.”
Living on the Runway
Talking about his sprawling villa at Ocala, Florida right beside the runway, Travolta exclaimed, “It’s wonderful! Some people get a high staying beside a river or a sea. I feel the same way watching planes in my backyard. Sometimes, when I get up in the morning and don’t find the planes parked outside, I miss them.”
“IT’S WONDERFUL! SOME PEOPLE GET A HIGH STAYING BESIDE A RIVER OR A SEA. I FEEL THE SAME WAY WATCHING PLANES IN MY BACKYARD. SOMETIMES, WHEN I GET UP IN THE MORNING AND DON’T FIND THE PLANES PARKED OUTSIDE, I MISS THEM.”
Flying People
Travolta has flown many people giving them immense joy and happiness. When he flew Oprah Winfrey’s audiences to Australia, the expressed feeling was that of ecstasy when they came to know they were flown by none other than John Travolta. A few even started dancing with joy. Among many other flights undertaken by Travolta, he had flown his wife and daughter to South Africa to cheer the US team in the football World Cup.
Musicals in Hollywood
Commenting on his musical Hairspray that released nearly 32 years after the hugely successful Grease, Travolta lamented about the difficulty of making a musical in in Hollywood at the time. “In the 1950s, there was a craze for such films. At present, Shirley MacLaine, Barbra Streisand and I are the only actors who can be a part of musicals,” he added.
Of India, by Indians
Talking about films with an Indian connection, Travolta picked out Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire and Mira Nair’s Bride & Prejudice. “To tell you the truth, Bollywood is great; it is formidable. It’s Hollywood that needs Bollywood, for India has emerged as a key market for Hollywood movies,” he observed.
Association with Breitling
“I am proud and happy. In fact, I have been using Breitling watches much before I was signed on as an ambassador with them. Well, these watches are a good back-up when I fly. The cockpit of my jet is equipped with the latest instruments. In case something goes wrong with them, I can always fall back on these mechanical timepieces to tell me about the speed, direction and fuel position of the aircraft,” signed off Travolta.