Bollywood’s Vest Side Story

From Salman to Hrithik, the biggest names of Bollywood are on television endorsing innerwear brands.

There’s a new thread uniting Bollywood superstars—underwear. Akshay Kumar, Salman Khan, Hrithik Roshan and until recently, Shah Rukh Khan, are all recommending what their fans should be wearing beneath their trousers and shirts.

“In the 60s and 70s, when you spoke of underwear advertising,” says Alyque Padamsee, CEO of AP Image Consultants, “you were talking about chaddis. With Jockey and Calvin Klein and Victoria’s Secret, the category has changed. At the same time, Bollywood has changed, and the whole of India has changed. And, hello! The money they’re given! They’re earning anywhere over Rs 10 crore. Why wouldn’t they do it?” But even that kind of money is not enough to make them appear in underwear in the advertisements.

In January, Akshay Kumar became the latest superstar to join the underwear bandwagon when he endorsed Dollar Club. Incidentally, this had been Salman’s brand earlier till he switched to Dixcy. Dollar Club reportedly decided not to renew his contract. Richa Khaitan of Dixcy says, “He has the fittest body in Bollywood. You have to flaunt your body in these ads. So he can show off his body and we can show off our product. See… it’s a mass product.” Salman will represent the Scott line, which is ‘the high-class one’ compared to the company’s other two ranges.

While Hrithik has been endorsing Rupa, Shah Rukh was the face of Lux Cozi. But he recently snapped ties with them because of public criticism. The brand’s owner Ashok Todi has been charged with abetting his son-in-law’s suicide, a sensitive issue in Kolkata where the actor has his IPL cricket club.

Earlier, chunky Bollywood heroes like Sunny Deol, Suniel Shetty and Govinda endorsed underwear brands, leveraging their rustic appeal. But with underwear advertising no longer considered a predominantly down market affair, the torch has now passed to superstars.

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