Celebrity brand power rises, but endorsements lose momentum

When Kroll released its annual ranking of India’s most powerful celebrity brands, the headline figure was unmistakable: the top 25 stars now command a collective brand value of $2 billion in 2024, an 8.6% rise from the previous year.

Yet the data also revealed fault lines in how celebrity influence is monetised, contested and deployed across advertising, cinema, and streaming platforms.

Cricketer Virat Kohli once again led the pack in Kroll Celebrity Brand Valuation 2024, holding the number one spot with a brand value of $231.1 million. Actor Ranveer Singh retained second position at $170.7 million, though his valuation dipped.

Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan stayed in third place with a 21% increase to $145.7 million, reflecting his strong run at the box office. Alia Bhatt took the fourth spot with $116.4 million and was also the only female presence in the top 5 ranks. Sachin Tendulkar climbed to fifth at $112.2 million on the back of a surge in endorsements.

“In 2024 we witnessed that the future of Indian cinema lies in synergy, indeed, OTT content and theatres complement each other,” said Umakanta Panigrahi, managing director, valuation advisory services, Kroll.

Cinema at a crossroads

Beyond the celebrity tally, Kroll’s report placed cinema economics in sharper focus. Hindi cinema’s box office share slipped to 39.5%, while South Indian films surged to 47.7%. OTT platforms, meanwhile, contributed more than half of revenues for major releases, showing that theatrical exclusivity no longer defines success.

A striking development was the strength of nostalgia-driven re-releases. Jab We Met and Tumbbad exceeded expectations, with re-released collections accounting for roughly half and 70% of their total earnings, respectively. Tollywood’s Ghilli matched the fervour of its original release, with re-release takings at 35% of lifetime revenue.

Panigrahi argued that these reruns have “put film theatres back on the map. As a result, cinemas have also definitely re-established their position in the industry as a strong competitor, proving that nothing can replace the feeling of watching a film in a theatre.”

The hybrid consumption model—cinemas for spectacle, streaming for convenience—may mark a new equilibrium. “Audiences can now have the best of both worlds: grand theatrical experiences and intimate storytelling at home,” Panigrahi added.

Legal battles over fame

The commercial stakes have driven celebrities to seek legal protection over their identities. In recent weeks, Karan Johar, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan approached the Delhi High Court to safeguard their personality rights.

These rights, also called publicity rights, allow individuals to profit from their persona—name, image, voice, or signature traits—while preventing unauthorised use. India lacks a dedicated statute, so courts rely on common law to resolve disputes. Misuse is widespread, from small businesses using star images without consent to more recent cases involving fake profiles and AI-generated explicit content.

The Delhi High Court has upheld the pleas of celebrities, directing defendants and platforms to remove unlawful content. The judgments illustrate the rising tension between celebrity brand equity, valued in millions of dollars, and a digital environment where replication is frictionless.

Celebrity-led advertising remains a mainstay of India’s media economy, but its dominance is softening. The TAM AdEx Half-Yearly Celebrity Endorsement Report for January to June 2025 showed that only 29% of ads featured a celebrity, compared with 71% led by non-celebrities. Within the celebrity slice, film actors made up 74%, sports personalities 19% and television actors 7%.

The report noted that after growth between 2023 and 2024, the volume of celebrity-endorsed ads declined by 12% in early 2025 compared with 2023. That drop indicates brands are recalibrating, blending star power with influencer-driven and non-celebrity campaigns. The economics of endorsements are evolving: celebrities still lend instant recognition, but the cost-benefit ratio is under greater scrutiny.

Festive season as testing ground

This recalibration is visible in India’s high-stakes shopping season, where Flipkart, Amazon and others battle for attention. With billions of rupees tied to consumer spending, advertising campaigns have become a barometer of creative strategies.

Flipkart’s Big Billion Days campaign drew together 11 celebrities, from Amitabh Bachchan to Alia Bhatt, in a fantastical universe. Instamart opted for multiplication, casting Ajay Devgn in infinite avatars to underline its 10-minute delivery promise.

Myntra’s Big Fashion Festival, featuring Ranbir Kapoor and Triptii Dimri, focused on humour rooted in household budgeting pressures, using the tagline ‘Kharche pe kharcha to charche pe charcha’.

Amazon’s Great Indian Festival leaned on influencers and regional narratives, a sign that reach now depends on both cultural and geographic localisation. Together, these campaigns highlight how platforms deploy different combinations of celebrities, humour, technology and regional cues to secure consumer mindshare.

For advertisers and agencies, the key question is whether India’s celebrity economy is entering a more cautious phase. Kroll’s $2 billion valuation shows that the market for celebrity influence is still expanding. Yet the slowing pace of endorsements and the legal scramble over identity rights point to a recalibration of how star power is deployed.

Cinematic nostalgia, regional ascendancy, and streaming-first strategies all feed into the same narrative: influence is no longer monopolised by a few megastars. Brands must weigh the costs of celebrity tie-ups against the flexibility of digital-first campaigns.

The festive season will offer an early test of how these shifts play out. Consumer sentiment, already buoyed by tax reforms and holiday momentum, will determine whether the big bets on celebrity-heavy campaigns deliver returns—or whether subtler, more localised strategies gain ground.

For now, India’s celebrity brand economy sits at an intersection: legally contested, economically lucrative, and creatively redefined. The next phase may not be about who tops Kroll’s charts, but about how the business of fame itself is renegotiated across media, markets and the law.