For years, celebrity-backed brands in India largely survived on launch buzz, glossy campaigns and fan curiosity — until weak sales and mounting losses exposed how difficult it was to turn stardom into a sustainable business. Now, large retailers are discovering that even struggling celebrity labels may still be worth buying, not for their balance sheets but for the star power and consumer attention they bring to an increasingly crowded beauty and fashion market.
As competition sharpens for younger consumers and premium shoppers, India’s biggest retail groups are quietly turning into collectors of celebrity-led brands — betting that fame, followers and aspirational value can succeed where standalone startups often failed.
The latest example is Reliance Retail acquiring actor Priyanka Chopra Jonas’s global haircare brand Anomaly, adding another celebrity-led label to its growing portfolio across beauty and fashion. The retailer already owns a majority stake in actor Alia Bhatt’s kidswear brand Ed-a-Mamma and holds a 40% stake in fashion designer Manish Malhotra’s luxury ethnic wear label MM Styles.
Other retailers have moved similarly over the years. Myntra acquired a majority stake in actor Hrithik Roshan’s fitness brand HRX in 2016, while Nykaa owns 51% in Kay Beauty through a joint venture with actor Katrina Kaif. Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail, meanwhile, owns youth fashion brand Wrogn, backed by cricketer Virat Kohli.
What is changing now, however, is that large retailers are increasingly willing to buy into celebrity-led brands even when they have struggled to scale independently.
Beauty retailer Nykaa is in talks to acquire a majority stake in actor Deepika Padukone’s skincare brand 82°E, which reported a 30% decline in FY25 revenue to ₹14.7 crore and a loss of ₹12.26 crore.
Valuation of Fame
Industry executives said the attraction lies less in current financial performance and more in the ability of such brands to bring built-in consumer awareness, aspirational value and social media-driven engagement that can later be scaled through larger retail ecosystems.
“Conglomerates like Marico or Reliance Industries have established distribution, supply chains, and capital efficiency. They can integrate these brands into their ecosystem and potentially improve margins, reach, and execution,” said Sandiip Bhammer, founder and managing partner, Green Frontier Capital.
The shift also reflects how large retailers are increasingly treating celebrity-led labels as extensions of the broader direct-to-consumer, or D2C, opportunity. While many digital-first brands saw rapid early growth by building online communities and targeting niche consumer segments, scaling beyond a point remained difficult without deeper capital, offline distribution and operational discipline.
“That is where larger companies see opportunity. They can take a brand with demand and make it more scalable, profitable, and widely available,” Somdutta Singh, founder and CEO of Assiduus Global, said.
According to a study of 82 FMCG companies rated by Crisil Ratings, D2C companies grew at around 40% CAGR between FY21 and FY24, compared with around 9% CAGR for established FMCG players. Yet, less than 15% of D2C companies in the sample had crossed ₹250 crore in revenue before acquisition.
Beyond the Buzz
For retailers, these deals are also becoming part of a broader platform strategy as competition intensifies in online beauty and fashion retail. Celebrity-backed labels bring exclusivity, repeat traffic and stronger consumer stickiness at a time when acquiring and retaining younger shoppers has become significantly more expensive.
Reliance’s acquisition of Anomaly, for instance, strengthens the portfolio of Tira, its beauty platform competing with Nykaa and others in the premium beauty segment. The brand was previously available on Nykaa and will now move exclusively to Tira.
“Celebrity-led brands often operate in emerging or premium categories, helping large players stay relevant with younger, digitally native consumers,” Bhammer said.
Executives and investors said the trend also reflects lessons from the first wave of celebrity-backed startups, many of which struggled after the initial launch buzz faded. Brands such as Nush by actor Anushka Sharma, Skult by actor Shahid Kapoor and All About You by actor Deepika Padukone failed to sustain momentum as celebrities often remained campaign faces rather than active operators.
“Celebrities were largely campaign partners, not real owners. Agencies handled supply chain, pricing and customer experience, and once the launch buzz faded, there was no operating muscle to sustain growth,” Aditya Singh, co-founder and partner at All In Capital, said.
The new phase, industry executives said, is less about celebrity entrepreneurship and more about how the country’s largest retailers are using celebrity-led brands to deepen consumer loyalty, build exclusive ecosystems and expand premium portfolios in an increasingly competitive retail market — proving that in modern retail, even a loss-making brand can still shine if it carries enough stardust.