Over 55% of Indian content creators say they’ve lost brand deals simply because brands couldn’t reach them, not due to poor performance, but because of fake or unverified managers. That’s according to a new nationwide survey by HashFame, a networking platform for creators and marketers, which sheds light on a growing access crisis within India’s booming influencer ecosystem.
The survey, conducted with over 32,000 top creators across the country, reveals a troubling pattern: brands often have to navigate a maze of agencies, third-party managers, and intermediaries just to get a message to a creator. In the process, deals are misrepresented, inflated, or dropped altogether. The report estimated that more than Rs 350 crore in brand collaborations fell through in the past year alone due to broken communication paths and false representation.
Around 62% of creators surveyed said they were never even made aware that a brand had tried to reach them, while 45% reported that imposters or unofficial managers had quoted inflated prices without their consent. Deals that should have been straightforward collaborations worth Rs 5 lakh often ballooned to Rs 10 lakh due to middlemen, causing brands to back out and creators to miss out on income they didn’t even know they had a shot at.
Revant Himatsingka, better known as FoodPharmer and followed by over 2.8 million people on Instagram, said, “I don’t actively chase brand deals, but I’ve had brands come to me confused about people claiming to be my representative and quoting inflated numbers. The bizarre part is I’m not even in the race, and I still lose deals I never knew existed. The system is broken.”
“Agencies have falsely claimed to represent me for years. I’ve lost work because they’ve misquoted rates or misrepresented my brand. It’s not just unprofessional — it’s damaging,” actor and creator Mallika Dua added.
Travel creator Anunay Sood, with over 1.1 million Instagram followers, said this has happened to him repeatedly. “People have claimed to be my manager, pitched me to brands, quoted inflated rates — and I found out much later, if at all. In some cases, multiple people were pushing the same brief, confusing the brand and hurting my reputation.”
“Somewhere between a brand’s intent and a creator’s inbox, the opportunity gets lost. That’s not just bad business, it’s deeply disheartening. Creators are building careers, not just content, and when they’re missing deals they never knew about, it shows how urgent the need is for transparency and verified communication,” Anirudh Sridharan, co-founder and head of product, Hashfame, commented. With over 4 million creators active in India, the scale of the problem is massive — and growing. As brands increasingly rely on influencer marketing, both sides are being shortchanged by gatekeeping, miscommunication, and misinformation. The result is a breakdown of trust, inflated pricing perceptions, and missed potential on all fronts.