Virat Kohli India’s most valuable celebrity with brand value of $171 million

By

Maverick Martins

Published
Jan 11, 2019

Indian cricket team captain Virat Kohli is the country’s most valuable celebrity with a brand value of Rs 1,204 crore ($171 million), according to the latest report by released by Duff & Phelps.
 

The cricketer endorses brands like Manyavar, Fastrack, Wrogn, and Puma among many others. He has also turned entrepreneur recently with the launch his own brand One8.
 
Kohli has topped the list for the second year running and his brand value has increased by 18 percent as compared to the previous year.

Kohli was followed by Bollywood actors Deepika Padukone and Akshay Kumar in the second and third spot respectively.
 
Commenting on the report, Duff & Phelps managing director and Asia Pacific leader for valuation services Varun Gupta in a statement said, "The celebrity endorsement market in India has matured from vanilla endorsement deals to full-fledged partnerships through innovative routes such as equity deals and strategic partnerships. Millennial celebrities continue to be the first choice for brand endorsements as companies want to have a greater focus on the youth segment fuelled by demand in sectors such as e-commerce, retail, FMCG and smartphones, among others.”
 
Aviral Jain, MD, Duff & Phelps added, “While Bollywood celebrities dominate the top ranking of top 20 celebrities, sportspersons are providing tough competition with Virat Kohli, Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni, and PV Sindhu collectively contributing almost $241 million, which is over 27% of the cumulative brand value of the top 20 celebrities pegged at $877 million.”
 
Duff & Phelps released the fourth edition of the report on India’s most valuable celebrity brands on Thursday. The theme of this year’s report is ‘The Bold, The Beautiful and The Brilliant.’