SRK hits $177.9M brand value: why marketers return
Kroll now values Shah Rukh Khan's celebrity brand at $177.9 million. Here's why decades of trust still make him India's most valuable brand face.
Four decades into his film career, Shah Rukh Khan has quietly built something rarer than a hit filmography: a celebrity brand that marketers still treat as prime shelf space. Kroll’s Celebrity Brand Valuation 2025 puts his brand value at $177.9 million, up from $145.7 million in 2024, and ranks him above Ranveer Singh at $162.9 million and Virat Kohli at $158.4 million.
The numbers behind the staying power
The data points in the same direction.
- Brand value rose to $177.9 million in 2025 from $145.7 million in 2024.
- His endorsement portfolio expanded from 28 brands in 2024 to 36 in 2025.
- Between January and September 2026, he accounted for 10% of celebrity-endorsed TV ad volumes, the highest share; MS Dhoni followed at 8%.
One face, several consumer eras
Hyundai picked Khan in 1998 to make the Santro feel familiar to Indian buyers when the Korean carmaker was still new here. That partnership is still running, with a fresh film in July 2026. He has also cycled through all three major telecom operators: Airtel, Reliance Jio and now Vi, which signed him in September 2026 for its ‘Vi Badal Raha Hai… Taiyaar Rahiye’ repositioning.
In beverages he moved from Pepsi in the 1990s to Thums Up in 2022. He was the first male film star to endorse Lux in India in 2005, and his newer slate includes Visa’s ‘Infinitely More’ and Foxtale’s ‘Let Your Glow Through’ campaigns.
Why marketers still pay a premium
The mechanism is borrowed equity. A celebrity carries accumulated meaning—trust, aspiration, familiarity—and an endorsement temporarily transfers a slice of that meaning to the advertiser. Khan’s filmography has spent decades building an emotional bond, especially among women, as economist Shrayana Bhattacharya documented in Desperately Seeking Shah Rukh.
That image is not accidental. In a 2017 Femina interview, Khan said he has ‘lost out on a lot of edgy cinema’ because he refuses to work in films where women are not respected. For brands, that consistency makes him safer than a star whose persona shifts with every release.
The risk side of the balance sheet
Celebrity equity is never risk-free. His long association with Fair & Handsome, launched in 2007, later drew backlash over skin-lightening messaging. His Vimal Elaichi ads triggered show-cause notices from Maharashtra FDA over alleged surrogate advertising. The lesson: the same familiarity that lifts a brand can also attach it to a controversy.
What to do with this
Do not read the Kroll number as a licence to chase reach. Read it as a case for long-term alignment. Hyundai did not switch faces when the market moved; it compounded familiarity. If you sign a celebrity, ask what meaning they can lend your category, not just how many eyeballs they bring.
Source: Afaqs!
