The man who once thundered ‘Rishte mein toh hum tumhare baap lagte hain’ or left no stones unturned to project what an ideal ‘Angry Young Man’ should be like, celebrates his 81st birthday today. Amitabh Bachchan aka Big B has had an illustrious career in films that spans over 50 years.

Some like to rewatch him sitting back and introducing himself as Vijay Deenanath Chauhan, some go back to watch his iconic monologue from Deewar. Even after his angry young man days were over, Bachchan remained an important part of the Bollywood industry acing his roles as an angry father like in Karan Johar’s Kabhie Khushi Kabhi Gham, or a helpless father in Baghban.

While we can go on and on about Bachchan’s five-decade-long film journey, alongside was his journey with brands that kept its momentum. The time when he had a life-threatening accident on the sets of Coolie and left the entire nation praying for him, became a point of realisation for brands that, could even possibly be better than him to connect with consumers.

He made his advertising debut with consumer durables brand BPL (British Physical Laboratories), in the 1990s. Roping in Bachchan who hadn’t endorsed any other brand then, was a massive move for BPL. Reportedly, the company paid Bachchan around Rs 8 crores, to come on board for its campaign ‘Believe in the Best’. He was also featured in a series of print ads for the brand.

Thus began Bachchan’s journey in the brand world and adland. He went on to endorse a number of top brands over the years, namely Cadbury’s Dairy Milk, Pepsi, Dr. Fixit, Gujarat Tourism, Rin, Ghari Detergent, Reid & Taylor, upGrad, JustDial, ICICI Prudential Life, Flipkart, Mankind, Tata Sky, TVS Jupiter, Cycle Agarbatti, Navratna Oil, FirstCry, Tanishq and Kalyan Jewellers. And these are just a few of them!

According to Celebrity Brand Valuation Report 2023, Bacchan today stands with USD 79 million dollars, as his brand value. After going through the number of brands he’s been associated with, this figure doesn’t surprise one much.

Everest Spices very recently brought a delight to its Bollywood-loving consumers’ eyes, where it featured fan favourites Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan alongside each other. The two ad films that the brand released collectively have garnered close to a 100 million views just on YouTube.

2023 was indeed a happening year for Bachchan, brand and endorsement-wise. For instance, he featured in a dozen films for Bikaji Foods International, the association that started in 2019.

Right before Valentine’s Day this year, a Kalyan Jewellers ad featuring Bachchan was released, where he played a jewellery salesman for the brand.

PhonePe also announced the launch of a celebrity voice feature on its SmartSpeakers in collaboration with Bachchan. The feature will allow PhonePe SmartSpeakers across India to validate customer payments in Bachchan’s voice.

Everything’s not perfect

Bachchan’s journey in the brand world has also seen a major share of ups and downs. Consider the very recent case of him featuring in a Flipkart ad, that irked retailers. Smartphone retailers called out the ad by Flipkart in which they allege misleads buyers into believing online platforms offer better deals this festive season.

The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) also wrote to the actor condemning his decision to endorse the same.

However, this isn’t the first time that Bachchan landed in trouble for his endorsements. He has faced a backlash for endorsing Pepsi in the past. Media reports suggest that Bachchan stopped endorsing the brand when a little girl asked him why he would endorse something that her teacher has termed ‘poison’. He eventually dropped his lucrative Pepsi deal.

The actor also found himself in trouble when the Maggi controversy happened. Along with Nestle, the actors who endorsed the brand (Bachchan, Madhuri Dixit, Preity Zinta) were all dragged to court. However, he later even seeked dismissal of the complaint on the grounds that he had agreed to promote the noodles and variants under the brand name Maggi only from June 5, 2012 to September 5, 2013 when there was no complaint about its quality.

Now it is about perspective, as to how one interprets the backlashes that came along Bachchan’s way. Was it concerned consumers or was it the cult status that he had developed that eventually led to disappointing his fans somewhere down the lane, is a point to ponder upon.