Splurge in the time of falling ratings: Amitabh Bachchan gets Rs 6.3 cr to endorse DD Kisan

Legendary Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan isn’t new to plugging losing causes, but even if his latest endorsement for Doordarshan’s Kisan channel doesn’t work out the way the channel  would have liked it to, the actor will be laughing all the way to the bank. According to a Hindu article, the actor has been paid a whopping Rs 6.31 crore, reportedly the highest he’s ever been paid for an endorsement, as the government passed on Salman Khan and star couple Ajay Devgn-Kajol to settle on him. [caption id=“attachment_2347684” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters image[/caption] The channel, which has a annual budget of Rs 45 crore, had reportedly almost settled for a fee of Rs 4 crore. However, the Hindu reported that the ad agency Lintas drove a hard bargain and eventually the channel was forced to pay him Rs 6.3 crore for the endorsement. The campaign  is expected to run till 30 April 2016 on various media platforms. The Additional Director-General of Prasar Bharti who heads the channel said that the decision to  rope in Bachchan as the brand ambassador was taken by a high-power committee and they had picked the veteran actor since he had ‘a strong connect with rural India’. The appointment of Bachchan as a brand ambassador for the channel raises eyebrows for multiple reasons. For one, the channel isn’t exactly seeing its viewership rise after a year of it being launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in May 2014. While launching the channel, the Prime Minister had said that ‘DD Kisan’ channel would generate enthusiasm and awareness about  farming in the same way as the various sports channels have popularised sports. He hoped the Kisan channel would do something similar for farming, “which is such a huge sector”. Unfortunately that hasn’t happened. And then there’s the Bachchan connection with the Prime Minister. The actor had endorsed Gujarat Tourism while Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat. He was recently even commended by the Gujarat government for his contribution to the cause. Questions are bound to be raised if it is the best idea to spend this amount on the actor when the channel’s budget is so low to start with. Either way, it’s unlikely that the actor is complaining.