Not Bollywood but cricket: How Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Hardik Pandya are becoming India’s top brand magnets

“WHAT’S IN A NAME?” Juliet may have wondered but in the world of celebrity endorsements, brand experts insist — it’s everything. A single controversy can dim the brightest star overnight. Traditionally, brand endorsements have been associated with movie stars, across all ‘woods’. Yet, sporting icons like Sachin Tendulkar and M.S. Dhoni proved to be a force to reckon with. Now, it seems Indian sporting icons are not only sprinting on the fields, but also in the brand endorsement race. Once dominated almost entirely by Bollywood, the list of India’s most valuable celebrity brands now has a powerful presence from cricket, almost levelling the field. Last year, Virat Kohli topped Kroll’s Celebrity Brand Valuation Report 2023. King Kohli, at a whopping $227.9 million, was followed by Ranveer Singh ($203.1 million), Shah Rukh Khan ($120.7 million), Akshay Kumar ($111.7 million), and Alia Bhatt ($101.1 million). Deepika Padukone, Dhoni, Tendulkar, Amitabh Bachchan and Salman Khan followed. Most of these brand icons are likely to retain their spots when the report for 2024 comes out, says Kroll India MD Aviral Jain. The report is expected soon. Ranveer, Shah Rukh, Akshay, Alia, and Deepika are expected to be in the Top 10 as well. A couple of new faces may feature in the Top 25, he adds. There will be one major change though: more actors from the South will make their debut on the list, courtesy the new-found popularity for regional films pan-India. “Over the years, the Bollywood pie started shrinking but their overall brand value hasn’t gone down. The share of sports icons and stars from the South has started to increase,” Jain says. Last year, Allu Arjun and Rashmika Mandanna made their debut on the list. Bollywood ruled the first Kroll report a decade ago. Over the years, Tendulkar, Dhoni, and Kohli gave the Bollywood A-listers a run for their money. Soon, Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya joined the race. This year too, all five cricketers are expected to retain their ranks in the Top 25. “As opposed to movie stars, who merely represent an industry within India, sports stars are seen representing the country. The baseline is achievement. You achieve, brands will come to you. It’s simple,” says V. Sunil, creative director, POTNTIAL, a branding and experience design company. Suhel Seth, founder and managing partner at brand marketing consultancy Counselage India, seconds Sunil. “Sportspersons have instant recognition when it comes to pan-India appeal. Whereas no matter how big one is, the movie star’s appeal is restricted. Besides, people are tired of looking at them.” Legendary sportspersons from the earlier era lacked the glamour quotient, says Seth. “The likes of Kohli, Dhoni and (shooter and Olympics medal winner) Manu Bhaker bring in glamour and a paradigm shift in the way sports is looked at,” he says. So, does the ranking have any impact on celebrity earnings? Not really. Being in the Top 10 neither doubles their earnings nor puts the celebrity in a position of power where he or she can demand more, says Jain. “We have seen that their earnings don’t change dramatically.” Of course, for newcomers riding on recent hits, earnings can double quickly due to a lower starting base. “But for mature celebrities like Kohli, Dhoni, Ranveer, Akshay, etc., the changes won’t be dramatic,” he adds. This is because the endorsement fees of these celebrities aren’t volatile. “If at all there’s a change, it will be in a range of plus or minus 20%.” There are exceptions, though. For instance, Shah Rukh had a stellar 2023 with blockbusters like Pathaan and Jawan. The result: a double-digit jump in the number of endorsements — from 12 in 2022 to 24 in 2023 — and fees. In 2024, he ended up with 28 endorsements. The Top 5 celebs will have 25-30 endorsements. Similar is the average for sports icons. “Kohli and Dhoni peak at 40s in the number of endorsements. If you look at Tendulkar, Hardik, and Rohit, they are in the 20-25 brands segment. For Bollywood, it’s about 30 for most in the Top 5 ranks, except for Ranveer who has about 45-49,” Jain elaborates. Several parameters such as the outlook of the personality, the number of endorsements, social media impact, career longevity, performance, reputation, and overall marketability go into the rankings. Yet, why does the brand value of Amitabh Bachchan, a household name, trail some younger peers? Jain attributes it to the Remaining Useful Life (RUL) factor. “In valuation terms, we ask how many more years the celebrity will be able to perform professionally,” he explains. For someone, with 10 endorsements worth ₹10 crore each, that’s ₹100 crore annually. “Then we assess whether that number is normalised or not, if it is a one-time jump or fall. We capitalise that value by a brand multiple. One of the key inputs to the brand multiple is the discount rate — what discounting are we going to give to future streams of income, and the number of years the cash flows are expected, which is based on the remaining functional life of that person,” Jain says. Hence, Bachchan’s RUL with that of, say, Ranveer, is very different. “Successful movie stars will have a career span of 20-50 years. From a cash flow perspective, anything that goes beyond 20 years, if you apply that to a multiple, the impact will be minimal after 20 years as compared to a younger star. That’s where the multiples get adjusted. This happens because of various reasons such as social media ranking, hit-flop ratio, and the age,” he points out. For sports celebrities, however, what matters is their career span, not their physical age. Retirement from active careers comes around their mid-30s or 40s. “There are some like Tendulkar, Dhoni, and now Kohli, who are ‘evergreen’. If you look at Kohli’s ads these days, you don’t see him hitting sixes; he’s more seen as a family man,” Jain says. “That means their lives are not limited to their retirement, but much beyond that. In such cases the multiples’ impact will be much lower.” But for others, the brand value is not so evergreen. A hit film, a century or two, or an Olympics medal could send your brand value rocketing. The same can be seen crash-landing after a controversy or a scam. That’s what gives brand rankings their dynamic nature. Fortune India is now on WhatsApp! Get the latest updates from the world of business and economy delivered straight to your phone. Subscribe now.

Not Bollywood but cricket: How Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Hardik Pandya are becoming India’s top brand magnets

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