Film stars continue to be favourites as far as brand endorsements are concerned and vice-versa. The thing about endorsements is that they offer an impressive sum of money (ranging a crore upwards for top league stars) for considerably less effort than a film. The results of an AdEx Survey by TAM Media Research conducted in April 2008, yielded some interesting results. In 2007, Shah Rukh Khan was associated with 39 brands while Amitabh Bachchan had 36 brands in 2007. Though these two are still the leaders when it comes to volume of advertisements, younger counterparts are fast catching up.

In the last year, Saif Ali Khan has emerged as one of the most sought after faces in advertising even though his films have not fared very well. While his recent outings namely Thoda Pyaar.. and Tashan have not done well, he still has blockbuster in Race. The current interest in his personal life, in addition to the gimmicky tattoo and guitar playing does have also helped. Saif now endorses a dozen products like Lays, Royal Stag, Lenovo, Head & Shoulders, Taj Mahal Tea and others. Latest additions to his brand kitty have come in the form of Provogue, Ponds and Head & Shoulders (with Kareena Kapoor).

They have recently signed on Head & Shoulders and have even replaced Madhavan and Vidya Balan in the Airtel campaign. The success of Jab We Met and her size-zero avtar in Tashan has helped Kareena emerge as one of the new favourites. She was reportedly paid Rs 5 crores for her recent Vivel soap ad that marked the foray of the ITC group into bodycare brands. Kareena is also the face for brands like Globus, Boro Plus, Dermi Cool and Garnier Fructus.

Hit girl Katrina Kaif with five successful films below her belt ( Namastey London, Welcome, Partner, Race and Singh Is Kinng ) is fast emerging a popular choice too. She was recently declared the brand ambassador for Nakshatra, replacing Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. In addition to that there are the earlier deals with Veet (hair removing cream) Slice (soft drink).

Abhishek Bachchan recently spoke out while promoting Omega at an event, stating, “Aishwarya discontinued Nakshatra because she had some conditions and the company did not come to terms with this, so she called it off. It is false news that she lost out the endorsement to Katrina Kaif.” The fact is though Aishwarya’s Jodhaa Akbar did well, there are not too many projects with her in the pipeline. Trade pundits believe that Aishwarya cannot command tier one prices and sign new endorsement deals as she is hardly signed any new movies and her career is past her prime.

Deepika Padukone has done pretty well for herself as she’s signed on with new brands like LG and Fiama Di Wills. The pretty actress is said to be charging anywhere between Rs 80 lakhs to Rs 1.5 crores for an endorsement deal. She also recently replaced Preity Zinta as BSNL’s brand ambassador.

Among the male newbies Ranbir Kapoor and Imran Khan have had sensational debuts but neither has landed an endorsement deal worth mentioning. Salman Khan too endorses lower tier products like Dollar Club Briefs and Mayur Suitings. Bollywood’s favourite poster boy John Abraham too is seen in Yamaha and FastTrack advertisements only. In recent times Hrithik Roshan too has only managed to add Cinthol to his tally of ads which features Parle Hide & Seek, Sony Ericsson, John Players, Coca-Cola, Acer and Hero Honda.

Most of these actors have not had many releases in 2008 and have maintained low visibilty, which might be the reason for them not signing on many brands. Saif Ali Khan and Katrina Kaif on the other hand have had plenty of releases and have signed on new products.

Akshay Kumar who is currently being helmed as the king of box-office and Bollywood, post Singh Is Kinng success, has no more than two big brands affiliated to his name. The Khiladi turned King lends his action packed image to Thums Up and Microsoft Xbox. The actor recently revealed in an interview with Screen that he was not keen on signing brands, as he did not have enough time. Kumar’s dates are choc-a-bloc full until 2009, which has prevented him from building on his brand associations.

On the other hand Shah Rukh Khan endorses dozens of big brands thanks to the King Khan image. Emami reportedly signed SRK in 2005 for an annual fee of Rs 5 crores. His fees has since been on the rise and trade analysts believe SRK could be charging anywhere between Rs 6 to 8 crores for an endorsement deal.

Not to be completely out shunned, the Big B still steps in with a handsome kitty of brands of his own. Bachchan Sr. endorses more than ten leading brands some of which are Cadbury, Dabur Honey, Parker and Reid & Taylor. Abhishek Bachchan on the other hand lends his superstar image to brands like Idea Cellular, Motorola and Omega Watches.

Adman turned filmmaker Shoojit Sircar who debuted with Yahaan in 2005 is of the opinion that celebrity endorsements are a part of exhaustively thought out and well-researched promotional strategies. “A Santoor ad featuring Saif Ali Khan might seem ambiguous to some, but no advertiser will pay a celebrity a large sum of money without considering the outcome,” revealed Sircar. He was of the opinion that basic products like toothpastes, creams and oils still benefit with celebrity presence. “People identify with celebrities easily and as a result are able to indentify with the product that celebrity endorses,” he said. Sircar also mentioned that an actor’s success in films leads to him getting newer endorsements offers.