Bollywood’s most well-known actors, including prominent endorsers like Ranveer Singh and Akshay Kumar, are seeing their advertising rates decline by 10–20% as a result of Hindi films’ lack of success at the box office this year, with the exception of the occasional movie.
Since the pandemic, even top stars like Kumar and Singh—who will earn the highest advertising fees among Bollywood actors in 2021 with a staggering brand value of $158.3 million and $139.6 million, respectively—have been severely lacking in superhits.
“There is a fall in rates of 10-20% of the top stars across Bollywood. So, they try and cover it up by doing far more ads across categories than they used to and giving more time to these things. The overall efficiency for a day (for filming ads) has also gone up,” says Manish Porwal, MD, Alchemist Marketing & Talent Solutions.He continues, “Bollywood stars are making equivalent money as before, despite the fact that overall brand value is declining.
In Duff & Phelps’ Celebrity Brand Valuation Study 2021, which ranks India’s most powerful celebrity brands based on brand values derived from their brand endorsement portfolios and relative social media presence, Singh and Kumar are ranked second and third, respectively, after legendary cricketer Virat Kohli. Bollywood produced eight of the top ten names on the list, totaling more than $620 million in brand endorsement value.
According to reports, Singh, who supports 41 businesses like Ching’s, Bingo, Nivea, and Colgate, charges between Rs 3.4 lakh and Rs 4 crore for each advertisement. At least 30 brands, including Honda, Nirma, Policy Bazaar, Livguard Energy, Harpic, Suthol, Dollar, Tata Motors, PC Jewelers, Revital H, Lever Ayush, and Cardekho, are supported by Akshay Kumar, who is known to charge over Rs 2 to 3 crore per day for an advertisement shoot.
According to experts, rates for the same actor can vary greatly depending on the brand, the category, and their value to the brand.
In addition, brands have improved their strategy and practicality while dealing with celebrities. “In the past, people would say, ‘I want Amitabh Bachchan for this. The question now, according to Porwal, is “Whom can I take for this?”
He continues, “OTT platforms have turned actors like Pankaj Tripathi into stars, further eroding the hegemony of star power.”Bang In The Middle co-founder and chief strategy officer Naresh Gupta reports that he is seeing new endorsement deals fall through and brands negotiating more aggressively. “There are currently a lot of star-endorsed paan masala ads, which may indicate that the endorsement market is in some turmoil. Even celebrities from the A-List are willing to work as influencers and post on Instagram. Karan Johar, a producer and director, is the best example “He claims.Since the pandemic, Singh has had a poor run with duds like ’83 and Jayeshbhai Jordaar. His most recent huge smash was Gully Boy from 2019. With Bell Bottom, Atrangi Re, Bachchan Pandey, Samrat Prithviraj, Raksha Bandhan, Cuttputlli, and Ram Setu, Kumar has had eight box office duds since Laxmii in 2020. Sooryavanshi (Nov 5, 2021)—his lone hit during this time—also featured Singh in a cameo role.
The film was made on a production budget of about Rs 160 crore and earned a net lifetime collection of Rs 196 crore in India and Rs 295 crore gross worldwide collections, according to Bollywood Hungama.
The Hindi film industry itself has had a poor showing this year, accounting for 33% of the Rs 9,024 crore cumulative box office collection in India during January-October 2022, according to Ormax Media’s ‘The India Box Office Report’. More than a third of that 33% sum came from Hindi-dubbed versions of Telugu, Tamil & Kannada language films, the report said. Movies in the southern languages, including RRR, KGF: Chapter 2, Pushpa, and most recently Kantara, have been competing with Hindi movies for audiences’ attention. According to the Ormax report, Brahmastra (Rs 306 crore), The Kashmir Files (Rs 292 crore), and Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 (Rs 219 crore) have been the top-grossing Hindi movies at the domestic box office thus far this year.