MUMBAI: For a fifth year running, cricketer Virat Kohli has emerged as India’s most valued celebrity, but… The star batsman’s resignation from captaincy roles across formats has seen his brand value drop from $237.7 million in 2020 to $185.7 million in 2021, the Celebrity Brand Valuation Report 2021 released by Duff & Phelps, Tuesday, avers.
Actor Ranveer Singh saw his brand growing and climbed a spot higher to come in at number two with a brand value of $158.3 million. Actor Akshay Kumar came in at number three with a brand value of $139.6 million.
RRR actor Alia Bhatt came in at number 4 with a brand value of $68.1 million. She is the youngest celebrity among the top 10 and is now the most valued brand amongst female Bollywood actors.
MS Dhoni came in at number 5 with a brand value of $61.2 million in 2021 after a huge spike in his brand value from $36.3 million in 2020. “Dhoni continues to enjoy a huge following and has brilliantly transitioned himself out of his pure cricketing image,” Duff & Phelps said in its report.
India’s badminton queen PV Sindhu is a new entrant in the top 20 club in 2021 with a brand value of $22 million.
Kohli’s brand endorsement power holds steady; social media following grows
Kohli continues to endorse 30 brands across sectors and his social media following also saw tremendous growth. “With his resignation from the ODI and T20 captaincy and associated exchanges with BCCI, and recent on-field outcomes, brand Kohli faced a decline in value compared to last year (2020). However, with the right on-field outcomes, brand Kohli might be able to maneuver through these speculative tracks ahead,” the report noted.
The overall brand value of the top 20 celebrities in 2021 is estimated at $1.2 billion, an increase of about 12.9% from last year, said Varun Gupta, managing director & Asia Pacific Leader, Valuation Advisory Services, Duff & Phelps.
“2021 also saw the emergence and growth of several start-ups in the fintech and direct-to-consumer (D2C) business segments that significantly contributed to the overall number of brand endorsements undertaken by the top 20 celebrities,” Gupta said.
“We are in the midst of ‘Digital Acceleration 2.0’ phase across businesses and brands. The endorsements have evolved to stay relevant in today’s environment requiring improvisation and scale.”
Gupta added, “These well-funded new-age companies have led to significant growth in the number of endorsements of the top 20 celebrities, increasing by more than 50% from 2020, and constituting about 12 per cent in the overall brand portfolio.”
In a year when the Tokyo Olympics was held and the film industry was adversely impacted by the pandemic-induced restrictions, sports persons witnessed a significant jump in endorsement deals.
Aviral Jain, managing director, Duff & Phelps, said, “While prominent Bollywood celebrities continue to feature in our list of top 20 celebrity brands, this year, we saw some notable changes. Ranveer Singh, Alia Bhatt, and MS Dhoni witnessed a stellar jump in their brand values and they seem to have hit the right chords with the audience in 2021.”
“Amongst celebrities, while Virat (Kohli) continues to rule the brand value charts, Ranveer, Alia and Dhoni seem to have hit the right chords with the audience in 2021 given the stellar jump in their brand values,” Jain noted.
Jain added, “We also saw more sportspersons rising in the top celebrity rankings, including the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Rohit Sharma, and PV Sindhu. This significant jump was because of the lesser competition from Bollywood celebrities since there were fewer theatrical releases in 2021.”
While Tendulkar was ranked 11, Sharma was at the 13th rank and Sindhu ranked 20.
The cumulative number of product brand endorsements by the top 20 celebrities increased to 376 in 2021, reflecting a reasonable recovery and growth from 357 product brands in 2020. This growth was also driven by endorsements in new-age companies such as fintech brands, crypto platforms and D2C brand. This represents a CAGR of 8.4 per cent over the last five years growing from 272 product brands in 2017, the report noted.
