Varun Dhawan To Sara Ali Khan: Actors prove they're more than just pretty faces fronting brands

Varun Dhawan , Pankaj Tripathi , Athiya Shetty , Dia Mirza , Sara Ali Khan and Rashmika Mandanna have one thing in common apart from acting. They all donned a dual role of an investor and brand ambassador for companies that they believe in.

In February, Agritech platform Krishi Network roped in Tripathi as an investor and not just a brand ambassador. With an aim to reach out to farmers, it was founded by IIT Kharagpur alumni Ashish Mishra and Siddhant Bhomia.

Tripathi has farming roots, and when he got to know about the initiative he jumped in.

“It’s a startup by youngsters. It’s related to farming. I am interested in the work that they are doing. I am an actor, so I do brand promotion as well. When there’s a farmers’ event, I make personal videos for that. I am involved in their activities,” the Mirzapur actor tells Firstpost.

Just few weeks after this announcement, reports of actress Athiya Shetty investing an undisclosed amount in Stage3 started popping up. The Hero actress has been actively involved with Stage3. Clearly, she is not just lending her name to the social commerce marketplace.

Shetty believes in expressing herself through fashion and clothes, and so she was looking to do something in this space. Then Stage3 came along, and according to her, it’s a platform that “ticked all the boxes for me.”

The association happened very organically, and as a creative director, it allows her to lend her voice to the platform.

She’s not going to stop here. Another passion of Shetty is the skincare and health space which she is looking to enter in an environment-conscious way. Shetty shares that it is in the planning space. She ultimately wants to make the skincare and beauty space environment conscious, free of animal cruelty and vegan.

Atrangi Re actress Sara Ali Khan entered the casual wear and pop-culture apparel space as an investor by pumping money into The Souled Store.

Then in April, cloud-kitchen operator Curefoods roped in actor Varun Dhawan, who is committed to fitness and an active lifestyle, as an investor and a brand ambassador for EatFit.

Latest to join the list of actors turning investors is Rashmika Mandanna, who will soon make her Bollywood debut with Mission Majnu. She took up the roles of an investor, brand ambassador and advocate for Plum, which a vegan, cruelty-free and toxin-free beauty and personal care brand.

She loves Plum’s products because it delivers what it says, and when the opportunity came by, she was more than glad to “build a long-term relationship with a brand that is not only passionate about its products but also walks the talk when it comes to being clean, real, and good through its initiatives.”

Through the association, she is hoping to be instrumental in enhancing awareness, gaining consumer trust, and building credibility for the brand.

“I would also bring in a consumer lens, which according to me, is at the forefront of building a successful brand,” says the Pushpa: The Rise actress.

She might be the latest actress to join the list, but there are many more names that one can think of.

Last year, actress-producer Dia Mirza, also a climate activist, joined Beco, an eco-friendly home, kitchen and personal care brand as an investor and brand ambassador. Mirza also invested in eco-friendly toy brand Shumee.

“I believe in a vision of the future where everything exists in peace and harmony, where our children can inhabit a better, plastic-free, healthy, green, kind and sustainable world,” she says.

“As such, I also believe that change starts at home and that all of us should collectively do our bit to better people and planet. ‘Conscious Capitalism’ is a very powerful concept - where businesses are seen as a force for good and must make a positive impact on their ecosystem and it is with this simple goal in mind that I decided to identify, invest in and partner with like-minded organisations that truly ‘walk the talk’,” adds the former beauty queen, who’s a mother to Samaira and Avyaan.

For Mirza, both Beco and Shumee are the first steps towards what she hopes to build out as a handful of such investments and associations across categories like health and beauty, clothing, baby care and others.

The Man Company, a men’s grooming essentials brand, also has Ayushmann Khurrana as an investor.

“As a celebrity investor, he is not just doing marketing and promotion for us but actually putting his money where his mouth is,” says Hitesh Dhingra, co-founder and MD of The Man Company.

He sees the trend as a progressive one. Actors are broadening their horizons, but he feels that it is “equally essential for them to ensure that their principles align with brand values and ethos.”

In their case, this requirement was fulfilled to the core.

“Ayushmann helped our business thrive in the right direction. His personality, image, and choices perfectly match The Man Company’s brand ethos; thus, this arrangement resulted in a productive outcome,” says Dhingra.

Credibility and trust are the biggest value additions when it comes to a brand associating with a celebrity, according to Rohin Samtaney, co-founder, The Souled Store.

He shares that it comes through a brand ambassador association as well, but it’s even higher when people know that an actor is backing the brand with their hard-earned money.

He thinks that actors turning investors is a good trend only if they truly believe in the brand and are an organic match in terms of values and personality. “It then truly builds credibility and trust for both entities with customers which is one of the biggest goals,” says Samtaney.

Actors turning investors also shows us their belief in the Indian startup ecosystem and points out the fact that this ecosystem is thriving, according to Ankit Nagori, founder, Curefoods.

“Moreover, they deserve to be a part of this network purely because of their connection with the masses that connect them well with the target segments and their overall understanding of the brand, its branding and the consumer segments,” he says.

He feels that when actors turn investors, it is a remarkable meeting of minds where businessmen and entrepreneurs can work with actors to target the right customers and audience, take an approach on the appropriate messaging and are able to find an overall product-market fit.

Natalia Ningthoujam is a Manipur-based journalist. She knows how to smoothly switch from being a fan to a writer whenever needed. She tweets at @nattynick.

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