2022 in review: How Brand Deepika became India's global face of luxury

From LV and Cartier to Cannes, the actor has had a sizeable brand presence this year

The streets of fashion capital Paris have a familiar face staring out of billboards this year: Deepika Padukone. A Louis Vuitton Dauphine slung over her shoulder, she looks the world in the eye. Turn to Los Angeles, and there she’s again, in her bronze-and-white look. Head over to Japan, and it’s her you see.

She might have done just one movie this year (Gehraiyaan) – and that too was released on an OTT platform (Amazon Prime Video) – but Padukone has been 2022’s biggest celebrity brand from India to have made a mark in the global luxury market.

Barely a month into the year, she was signed on as Louis Vuitton’s (LV’s) house ambassador in February. It was for the first time in the French luxury fashion house’s 167-year history that an Indian was to be its global brand ambassador. But this wasn’t the only luxe deal she bagged. In October came another, with Cartier, too, signing Padukone on as its global face. She is currently the only Indian woman to be associated with uber-luxe brands such as these – ahead of Alia Bhatt, whose brand value at $68.1 million (according to consulting firm Kroll) was higher than Padukone’s ($51.6 million) in 2021.

She is also the first Indian after a gap of nine years to be on the jury of the Cannes Film Festival. The last one was Vidya Balan in 2013. Among the other Indian notables on the Cannes jury have been actors Sharmila Tagore (2009) and Aishwarya Rai (2003), and author Arundhati Roy (2000).

This was Padukone’s sixth appearance at Cannes, where she accounted for seven of LV’s top 10 Instagram posts and generated over 25 per cent of the $20.2 million in media impact value (MIV) for the brand during the 12-day film festival, according to data analytics and marketing agency Launchmetrics.

Media Impact Value is a proprietary algorithm created by Launchmetrics to measure and benchmark the impact of all media placements and mentions across different voices in the fashion, luxury, and beauty industries. It considers a host of factors like engagement metrics and advertising value, and can be used by brands to see (in monetary terms) the buzz generated by celebrities and influencers wearing their creations.

A single Instagram post featuring Padukone on the third day of the festival in a floor-sweeping red Louis Vuitton gown garnered more than two million likes and generated more than $1 million in MIV for the brand, according to Business of Fashion, a global fashion-focused media company.

“Cannes has a massive impact on the global positioning of an artiste. It tells the global film community that this is an artiste to watch out for, one who has gravitas, and has a body of work that needs to be looked at,” says film critic Anupama Chopra.

At number seven, Padukone’s rankings for 2021 (according to Kroll) had slipped two spots since 2020. She was behind Virat Kohli (No 1), Ranveer Singh (her husband, who was at No 2) and Amitabh Bachchan (No 6). But her association with global luxury brands puts her ahead of them. Her first co-star, Shah Rukh Khan, used to be the brand ambassador for LVMH group's Tag Heuer watches, but that ended with the brand shutting its stores in India in 2015. Among male celebrities, Hrithik Roshan has been the ambassador for luxury watch brand Rado for over a decade.

Padukone’s endorsement list of Indian brands includes Epigamia, JioMart, Lloyd and Meesho.

Chopra attributes Padukone’s rise to hard work, talent and her risk-taking abilities. “She has been ferociously navigating, negotiating and improving her craft over the years,” says Chopra, adding that the actor is “a rare combination of incredible beauty and incredible talent, which has propelled her to where she is”.

Samit Sinha, founder, Alchemist Brand Consulting, adds, “In an industry where fakery is endemic, Padukone comes across as genuine and relatable.”

An example is her candid admission of her struggle with depression in an interview to journalist Barkha Dutt in 2015. She was one of the first Indian celebrities to admit, at the peak of her career, that she had battled depression and sought help for it.

“Coming from a celebrity of her stature, it helped do away with a lot of shame attached to mental health issues,” says Mrigtrishna Rathore, a Jaipur-based psychotherapist. “Her frank admission sparked a chain reaction. Not just conversation around the subject — there were suddenly more people coming forward to talk about mental health issues – but more organisations also came up to address it. It triggered a wave of acceptance.”

Five years later, the January of 2020 saw her standing silently alongside students protesting at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University – a powerful image that invited both admiration and backlash.

Like Chopra says, she has risk-taking abilities. Is she then a bankable brand?

Sinha thinks so. “Among the things that help make a brand is authenticity. A fake-it-till-you-make-it image is difficult to keep up and washes away in the long run," he says. "One cannot please everyone – there’s the risk of image dilution (in that). Padukone has stood her ground on matters that are important to her, and it is this authenticity, willingness to come across as vulnerable, and transparency that make her a bankable brand.”

For Padukone, the year is coming to a close with her launching her own self-care brand, 82°E – pronounced Eighty-Two East and inspired by the longitude that determines the standard time for India. The years ahead, too, hold promise: January 2023 will find her back on the big screen opposite Shah Rukh Khan in Pathan; and in 2024, she'll appear in Fighter opposite Hrithik Roshan. 

The Padukone Factor

* First Indian to be LV’s house ambassador in its 167-year history

* Became Cartier’s global face in October

* First Indian in nine years to be on Cannes jury

* Accounted for seven of LV’s top 10 Instagram posts at Cannes

* Generated over 25% of the $20.2 mn in media impact value for LV at 12-day Cannes festival

* A single Instagram post with her in a red LV gown generated over $1 mn in media impact value for LV