Is Mauritius Sanjay’s next address?

London, Sept. 24: Mauritius has only between 3,000 and 4,000 super luxury villas on offer to India’s super rich — that was the message going out today to Sanjay Dutt and the big stars of Bollywood.

Sanjay is known to have a soft spot for the Indian Ocean island paradise. Mauritius is also the financial centre through which a significant part of India’s FDI is routed.

“Many of the Bollywood stars — and not only Bollywood but sports celebrities and politicians, too — visit Mauritius. They feel at home in Mauritius: after all, 70 per cent of the population hails from India,” Ramakrishna Sithanen, the republic’s deputy Prime Minister as well as minister for finance and economic development, said in an exclusive interview with The Telegraph in London.

In recent years, Bollywood films have been shot in Mauritius. Concerts have also been held and the island has become increasingly a bolt-hole for the stars. It is within easy reach of Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai — just about six hours’ flying time away.

The invitation to the Indian rich is as follows: “Welcome to the world’s most privileged residential hideaway.”

“These are villas for high-net-worth individuals,” Sithanen stressed. “We start at a minimum price of $500,000 (Rs 20.3 crore) but most of them are going for double that amount.

“If you buy one of these villas, you (automatically) become a resident of Mauritius so they are geared basically towards the rich Indians or Europeans or South Africans or Americans.”

The advice from the minister was effectively: “Buy now while stocks last.”

The first 70 villas apparently sold out in six hours. When not using the villas, the Indian rich can get even richer by renting them out, the Mauritius government says.

Sithanen is keen that the Indian rich snap up, at least, some of the villas: “One of the architects is Norman Foster — so there are some big names. You will have your own swimming pool, there are excellent facilities for golf…. It is a combination of hotels, villas and golf courses. You have got the sea and you have got (local) people coming to provide a range of facilities.”

But Indians have to move quickly since the “window will close after 3,000 to 4,000 villas, because of the smallness of the country. They are already being sold very quickly.”

Apart from the cost of the villa, there is a one-off fee.

Sithanen said: “We charge a tax, of about $6,000 (Rs 2.43 lakh) a villa, and the money is ploughed back into the community in terms of education, training and poverty alleviation.”

In the spirit of the partnership, residents of the luxury village will be expected to buy fresh vegetables and fish from the local people so that there is no resentment at the arrival of rich foreigners.

The minister, who is touring western Europe to promote Mauritius as the new Singapore of Africa, said: “It’s a very hospitable country and the facilities are excellent. Not only Bollywood stars but even other celebrities come to Mauritius. But Bollywood stars add spice.

“Most of our tourists… come from Europe. One way of correcting the imbalance in trade (between India and Mauritius) is basically to get more tourists from India. People can visit Mauritius and go on to visit Africa. They can sit by the beach and then visit animals so it can be a combination of beach and safari.”