As a slew of mobile game makers sign up the glam set, starshine is the new buzzword in the play screen. Sportsmen are ruling the gaming market, be it master blaster Sachin Tendulkar, Najafgarh boy Virender Sehwag, soccer wizard Baichung Bhutia or Jharkhand lad M.S. Dhoni, all of them are invading mobile screens with equal panache.

"A celeb-based game resonates more with con sumers than a non-branded figure," says Nitish Mittersain, CEO, Nazara Technologies, which has exclusive rights for Tendulkar, Dhoni, Sehwag, Australian speedster Brett Lee and England's Kevin Piete-rsen. Everything comes with a price tag, on-field champs too.

According to estimates, Nazara paid Tendulkar Rs 4-5 crore as signing amount for three-year mobile rights. "We have developed almost half-a- dozen games around him, including Sachin Duck, The Bouncer, Smash'em and Sachin Tap-a-Thon," informs Mittersain, adding that the company's profits have "gone up by 20 to 30 per cent with celeb-led games.

"Operators are not very keen on nonceleb based games. So, we are in talks with a lot of national and international stars to develop games," says Ninad Chhaya, EVP, Operations, Paradox.

Not to be left behind, Bollywood, too, has fielded its champs in the wireless world. While hunky John Abraham leads the pack, southern wonder R. Madhavan, music composer Bappi Lahiri and sizzling Sameera Reddy add glam quotient to the mobile screen. Sameera is the first actress to inspire a mobile game. She plays the part of a warrior princess who fights savage warriors. "I am crazy about gaming and I think that was the reason why I accepted the project. Then, I feel the fact that Bollywood actors are being considered as role models in such games is great," Reddy was quoted as saying.

"Due to stars, these games act as an instant brand recognition. Plus, it also helps attract new people to mobile games, " says Dippak Khurana, Region Head, India and Far East, Mauj Telecom.

For the record, India is on the fast track, at least in terms of telecom penetration, the latest data reveals that nearly 10 per cent of Indian citizens own wireless phones. However, it is still way behind nearest rival China, where nearly 30 per cent of people own mobile devices. While India's mobile subscriber base crossed the landmark figure of 10 crore in May, China, with a population of 137 crore, had 40 crore subscribers. But over the last few months, according to a Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) report released in January, India added more than 4.5 million subscribers each month.