Celebrity TV ads fall 17%; Shah Rukh Khan stays most visible

Celebrity-led television advertising in India is not disappearing, but it is being bought more selectively. According to TAM AdEx data for January-September 2026, the volume of celebrity-endorsed TV ads fell 17% compared with the same period in 2025. Even with that decline, celebrity commercials still accounted for more than a quarter of all TV advertising, and film stars continued to command the category with a 65% share of celebrity-led volumes.

01 · The headline numbers

The softness showed up across the quarters. Average daily celebrity-endorsed ad volume was 308 hours in January-March, 252 hours in April-June and 234 hours in July-September. That looks like a steady slide, but the report identifies the April-June IPL window as the peak for celebrity activity: celebrity endorsements made up 38.8% of ad volumes in that quarter, up from 36.3% a year earlier.

May accounted for the highest monthly share at 15%, followed by April at 14%; July was the quietest month at 8%.

• Celebrity ads remained above 25% of all TV advertising in the period.
• Film stars took 65% of celebrity-led volumes; sports personalities took 28%.
• The IPL quarter lifted celebrity share to 38.8% from 36.3% year-on-year.

02 · Visibility is one scoreboard

Shah Rukh Khan was the most visible face on television, with 26 hours of daily ad visibility across channels. MS Dhoni followed at 22 hours a day, and Jasprit Bumrah was third at seven hours. In share terms, SRK accounted for 10% of celebrity ad visibility, Dhoni 8%, and Bumrah 3%. New entrants to the top ten included Bumrah, Abhishek Sharma, Shreya Chaudhry, Kiara Advani and Rohit Sharma.

Brand associations tell a different story. Akshay Kumar led with 35 brand associations during the period, up sharply from 21 a year earlier. MS Dhoni was next with 33, followed by Shah Rukh Khan with 29, Amitabh Bachchan with 27 and Ranbir Kapoor with 26. The divergence matters: visibility measures how much screen time a face gets; brand count measures how many marketers are willing to hire it.

Couple-led endorsements remain visible but niche. Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt led with a 19% share across 37 brands, ahead of Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan at an 11% share across 27 brands.

03 · Where celebrity money concentrates

Food and beverages was the largest category, at 25% of celebrity-endorsed ad volumes, with personal care and personal hygiene at 18% and household products at 9%. Together those three sectors accounted for more than half of all celebrity TV advertising, and the top seven sectors delivered 81%. At the category level, toilet and floor cleaners led with 8%, followed by toilet soaps at 7% and aerated soft drinks at 6%.

Yet the widest celebrity roster appeared in paints, which used 36 different celebrities, ahead of building materials and systems at 31 and retail outlets and jewellers at 28. This is the useful nuance: a category can have a broad roster without driving the most ad volume, just as a celebrity can be highly visible without holding the most brand relationships.

04 · What brand leaders should do with this

First, separate reach from fit. A star with high visibility is not automatically the right partner for a specific category or region; the report’s spread across food, personal care and household products shows celebrity budgets still cluster in everyday, high-frequency purchase categories. Second, time celebrity spending to attention peaks, as the IPL quarter’s rising share suggests advertisers are already doing. Third, watch the gap between visibility and brand associations when negotiating fees: high visibility can command a premium even when a peer has more active brand work.

Celebrity advertising remains a significant share of television, but the year-on-year decline points to a more cautious, more concentrated market rather than a full retreat. For India’s brand leaders, the answer is not less fame: it is fame placed where the attention, and the category logic, genuinely justify the fee.

Source: Indian Advertising Media & Marketing News – exchange4media

Mad About Marketing Desk The strategists and writers at Mad About Marketing, writing up what we see in the work every week.