Virat Kohli continues as India’s most valuable celeb for 5th year in a row: Duff & Phelps

Virat Kohli has retained the top position for the fifth consecutive year with a brand value of $185.7 million, albeit a significant drop from last year, according to Duff & Phelps’ Celebrity Brand Valuation Study 2021. The seventh edition of the study is titled ‘Digital Acceleration 2.0’.

Ranveer Singh secures the second position this year with a brand value of $158.3 million, while Akshay Kumar lands the third position with a brand value of $139.6 million. Alia Bhatt ranks fourth with a brand value of $68.1 million and becomes the most valued female celebrity in 2021, while MS Dhoni enters the Top 5 club this year with a brand value of $61.2 million.

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

The annual Celebrity Brand Valuation Study provides a ranking of India’s most powerful celebrity brands based on brand values derived from their brand endorsement portfolios and relative social media presence. It recognises the impact of the second year of the pandemic on the overall celebrity endorsement space and the evolving Indian media and entertainment industry.

Aviral Jain, Managing Director, Duff & Phelps, A Kroll Business, commented, “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. 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.”

Varun Gupta, Head of Asia Pacific, Valuation Advisory Services, Duff & Phelps, A Kroll Business, added here, “Businesses and brands have heavily leveraged social media and other online platforms for brand endorsements this year, too, with below par weightage to traditional platforms. The year 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. As traditional as well as upcoming industries adopted the digital route to continue engaging with their consumers, we observed greater traction in fintech, social media and OTT platforms, and D2C platforms from a celebrity endorsement standpoint.”