The cricketer’s contract with Mayur Suitings expired in December 2006
ALOKANANDA CHAKRABORTY
NEW DELHI, FEB 12: RSWM Ltd (earlier Rajasthan Spinning & Weaving Mills Ltd), the flagship company of the LNJ Bhilwara Group, has roped in Bollywood star Salman Khan to endorse the Mayur Suitings brand.
Mayur Suitings’ contract with cricketer Virender Sehwag—who is going through a lean patch with the willow, and has just about made it to the Indian squad for Cricket World Cup 2007, on Monday—expired in December 2006.
While RSWM executives are tightlipped about the company’s plans, advertising agency sources say Salman has been roped in for an endorsement fee of Rs 1-2 crore a year. For the records, Sehwag took home a fee of Rs 50-60 lakh a year. The Rs 100-crore Mayur Suitings brand, which flaunts the tagline “Stars ki Pasand”, has been endorsed by Bollywood actors Shah Rukh Khan, Chandrachur Singh and Sharad Kapoor over the last one decade. Sehwag joined the ranks of RSWM’s (turnover for 2005-06: Rs 994.16 crore) star endorsers in 2002.
On his part, Abdul Rashid Salman Khan, or Salman Khan as he is better known, is expected to infuse “a certain amount of vigour and freshness to the Mayur brand”.
“We see a better fit with Salman,” says an executive close to the development. “The effort will be to position Mayur as the favoured brand for the aspiring consumer.”
The Salman campaign is expected to retain the brand’s earlier tagline and will be aired on Sony’s MAX channel during the Cricket World Cup telecast next month. The teaser campaign broke on Saturday on Nimbus Communications’ 24-hour cricket-centric television channel Neo Sports.
Although Salman has often been misunderstood, he has a large fan following and an indisputable mass appeal, which is why he has been a favourite choice for brand endorsements. Salman has also endorsed brands like Red Tape and Lux Undergarments.
