Despite 20% drop, Kohli unbeaten at top in brand value

Sachin Tendulkar ($47.4 mn) at 11th, Team India captain Rohit Sharma ($32.2 mn) at 13, and PV Sindhu ($22mn) at 20th rank, are also on the list by consultancy firm Duff & Phelps. The cumulative number of product brand endorsements by the top-20 celebrities increased to 376 in 2021, as against 357 product brands in 2020, which the consultancy claims is reflective of a reasonable recovery

New Delhi: Former India cricket captain Virat Kohli retained his position as the most valued celebrity in 2021 even though his brand value has plunged by around 22 per cent to $185.7 million (close to Rs1,400 crore), according to Celebrity Brand Valuation Report 2021 released by Duff & Phelps. This is the fifth consecutive year when the ace cricketer, who recently stepped down from captaincy in all formats of the game, has topped the chart, said the latest edition of the Celebrity Brand Valuation Report.

Team India captain Rohit Sharma is at number 13 with a brand value of $32.2 million, while Indian batting legend Sachin Tendulkar has been ranked at 11th with a valuation of $47.4 million. In 2020, Kohli's brand value was at $237.7 million. Another former India skipper MS Dhoni ranked fifth in 2021 with an increase of 69 per cent in his brand value to $61.2 million. In 2020, Dhoni was ranked 11th with a brand value of $36.3 million. Actor Ranveer Singh has pipped older peer Akshay Kumar to become the second most valuable celebrity in India with $158.3 million worth. Kumar is now ranked third with the brand value of $139.6 million. Actor Alia Bhatt was at the fourth position, moving up two slots from 2020, with a brand value of $68.1 million.

The Gangubai Kathiawadi actor entered the top-five chart of the Celebrity Brand Valuation Report for the first time.

According to the report, the overall brand value of the top-20 celebrities in 2021 is estimated at $1.2 billion, up 12.9 per cent from last year. Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan has been ranked at number six with a valuation of $54.2 million, followed by Deepika Padukone at seventh position with a brand value of $51.6 million. Ace shuttler P V Sindhu has also entered the top 20 list. Sindhu, who has won the Swiss Open title, has been ranked 20th with a brand value of $22 million. Among those on the list of top 20 celebrities, five are from the sports fraternity and the rest are from Bollywood and other entertainment industries.

Aviral Jain, Managing Director, Duff & Phelps A Kroll Business, said: "While prominent Bollywood celebrities continue to feature on 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. We also saw more sportspersons rising in the top celebrity rankings, including the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Rohit Sharma and P V Sindhu," he said.

This significant jump in number of sportspersons was due to the lesser competition from Bollywood celebrities since there were fewer theatrical releases in 2021, Jain said. Now emerging digital business segments like fintech and direct-to-consumer (D2C) have witnessed tremendous growth in terms of the number of startups, and also in terms of the funds raised during 2021, said Varun Gupta, Managing Director & Asia Pacific Leader, Valuation Advisory Services, Duff & Phelps A Kroll Business. "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% in the overall brand portfolio," he said. With a splendid performance at Tokyo Olympics and yet another successful IPL season, Indian sportspersons are emerging as the leading brand endorsers. "Not only have sportspersons witnessed a significant jump in the number of endorsement deals, but also they enjoy a massive social media fan following and engagement benefiting as a result of lower competition from movie stars with limited theatrical releases," he said.

There has been a revamp in the celebrity endorsement space in the last two years where the word "celebrity" is no longer synonymous with just Bollywood actors or A-league cricketers, but also includes a wide range of sports athletes and social media influencers under its umbrella, stemming from the significant increase in usage of digital platforms due to Covid-19 pandemic, the firm said. Television continues to contribute the highest spends in advertising, but digital media, the second largest, is fast catching up and will emerge as the largest in terms of spend in 2023, it said.