MUMBAI: The iconic host of Star Plus' Kaun Banega Crorepati - Amitabh Bachchan aka Big B - has re-located to New York. Or at least his billboards have. New Yorkers are now getting used to seeing India's biggest superstar smiling down from newly erected KBC2 hoardings across the Big Apple!

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KBC2, which airs in the US on DirecTV's Star Plus, has hit the second leg of its marketing campaign and that explains Bachchan's return to the city; this time featuring in a major Out of Home (OOH), in-theater and in-DVD entertainment campaign, along with its television, print and radio campaign. Bachchan had earlier made a personal appearance to kick off the show in the US in November 2005.

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Bachchan's face stares down at you much like a billboard in Mumbai's suburbs of Juhu or Bandra reminding you of being in Amchi Mumbai while you may be just outside the Lincoln Tunnel entrance to New York City, or MetroPark and Edison Stations in the bustling New Jersey community of Middlesex, or in Long Island at the Hicksville and Syosset stations of the Long Island Railroad.

Along with OOH, KBC2 spots are running in South Asian theaters and screens that show Bollywood films across the country, as well as a strategic tie-up for In-DVD advertising with the leading supplier of Bollywood films, Eros. To take it even further, Elephant Advertising has installed plasma screens in high footfalls South Asian grocery stores, restaurants, movie theaters and even a bank.

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Says Elephant Advertising COO Nayan Padrai, whose ad agency is behind the campaign, "We are very excited to see that DirecTV has taken the lead in ethnic marketing by taking bold decisions to use mass market out-of-home in heavy South Asian concentrated areas. This campaign is a result of a year-long test campaign using transit and out of home in strategically important regions across the country."

With over 600,000 plus South Asians estimated to live in the New York and New Jersey area, the agency feels that the campaign is right on target. "For the first time, a major American brand targeting South Asian consumers has used this much out-of-home," Padrai claims.

Sunil Hali, founder of CineMaya media Group, the parent company of Elephant Advertising adds, "We believe that marketing to South Asians requires more than the usual mix of traditional media. With DirecTV, we have approached the whole strategy from the ground up."