It's Aitraaz as always for MTN in India

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The word ‘Aitraaz’ seems to have stuck with South African telecom major MTN in India – from its first mention four years ago in a Bollywood blockbuster in 2004 to the two instances this year regarding its encounters with two corporate houses -- Mittals and Ambanis.

MTN possibly first found its mention in India in a super-hit Hindi movie named ‘Aitraaz’, meaning objection, which had stars like Akshay Kumar, Priyanka Chopra and Kareena Kapoor.

The movie, incidentally a court-room drama, had its lead actors asserting their ‘Aitraaz’ to each other over issues like relationships, illicit affairs and other allegations and had the main protagonist, played by Akshay, as an employee of the South African mobile firm MTN when he meets the antagonist, whose role was essayed by Priyanka.

When the movie hit the theaters in 2004 it became an instant hit, but not much attention might had been on MTN at that time and hardly had any one visualised that the name of this company would grab the headlines across the media four years later in 2008.

This time around, MTN got its mention in India not because of a movie, but for an entirely business proposition -- it entered into negotiations earlier this year for a potential business amalgamation deal with the country's top private sector telecom player Bharti Airtel -- run by billionaire businessman Sunil Mittal.

After days of talks over the deal table, Bharti expressed its ‘Aitraaz’ on May 24 to certain deal structures proposed by MTN and disengaged itself from the talks.