Athletics
Neeraj Chopra topples most Indian cricketers in terms of brand endorsements fee
After winning the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics, Neeraj Chopra has seen a 10-time growth in his brand endorsement fee.
Buoyed by his gold-medal winning performance at the Tokyo Olympics, India's ace javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra has seen a spectacular rise in his popularity.
Not just in terms of social media or screen presence on television, the 23-year-old's brand endorsement fee has reportedly increased by 10 times. Chopra has now surpassed most active Indian cricketers, with just Virat Kohli being ahead of him.
As per reports, Neeraj, who was making Rs 15-25 lakh per endorsement on an annual basis before the Tokyo Olympics, has now signed new deals which will be worth 10 times that money. Experts opine that nobody in the Indian sports ecosystem has ever seen such a steep rise in brand endorsements in individual events.
Neeraj is expected to charge around Rs 2.5 crore for each endorsement. In comparison, Indian cricket team captain Virat Kohli is presently the only sportsperson in the country to be charging a fee in the region of Rs 1 to 5 crore.
Neeraj's brand endorsement hike does put him ahead of other cricketing stars like Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul who reportedly charge between Rs. 50 lakh to Rs. 1 crore per year.
As reported by Economic Times, JSW Sports, which manage Neeraj, are in talks regarding five or six deals with luxury auto and apparel brands which could be finalised in the next few weeks and a series of digital-only pacts. In fact, deals with existing brands like Nike, sports drink Gatorade, ExxonMobil and MuscleBlaze sports supplements are also set to be revised at higher prices.
Chopra's social media followers have increased by manifolds after he won the gold on August 7. AT present, he has 4 million followers on Instagram and nearly 600,000 on Twitter.