Sachin Tendulkar at 50: Half-century of TV commercials’ mischievous gully cricketer

Sachin Tendulkar advertisements over the years.

“First ever” claims can be tricky, but Mushtaq Ali’s 1938 Bournvita commercial is probably the oldest by an Indian cricketer. Three years later, CK Nayudu endorsed Bathgate Liver Tonic.

In the first two decades after Independence, Brylcreem signed up — in that order — Vinoo Mankad, GS Ramchand, Subhash Gupte, and Farokh Engineer. In the 21st century, they would MS Dhoni as well.

Print remained the main form of advertisement until the 1980s. Doordarshan was still the only channel, but over the course of decades, more and more television sets — even colour — were sold across India.

Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev dominated the television commercials through the decade, though there was a difference between the way they were marketed.

While Gavaskar endorsed Dinesh Suitings and Air India, Kapil modelled for Rapidex English Speaking course and BSA SLR bicycles.

In fact, the same brand used “as Sunil Gavaskar was perfecting his square drive, Palmolive was perfecting his shaving” for one, and “Palmolive ka jawab nahin” for the other.

But when Sachin Tendulkar arrived, brands figured out that he would be ideal for both markets — Gavaskar’s and Kapil’s.

The fans did not mind this. On one hand, Tendulkar was Gavaskar’s spiritual successor as the face of the famed Mumbai school of batting; on the other, he teamed up with Kapil in wins, most famously against Pakistan in the 1992 World Cup and the 1993 Hero Cup final.

At this stage, Tendulkar was a teenager, not yet a potential model for suits but, as Piyush Pandey figured out, the one with the “elder brother” image in gully cricket.

By then, Gavaskar had made a seamless transition into the commentary box, but Kapil was still around. Boost came up with the idea of having a living legend alongside the next best thing in Indian cricket.

Tendulkar grew in stature, but the advertisers stuck to his boyish image for some time. However, as Action Shoes figured out, it was not enough to come to the aid of a helpless child (Kunal Khemu): a teenage superhero also needed to impress the other gender, in this case, Shenaz Treasurywala.

Meanwhile, as Tendulkar was making runs by the thousands, the government opened up the Indian market to the world. Foreign brands began to flood the Indian market, as did inexpensive television sets.

As live cricket took over primetime television slots, Tendulkar began to compete with movie stars. One major brand to sign up Tendulkar at this time was Pepsi.

Until 1996, Tendulkar’s Pepsi commercials retained his boyish image. By the time Vinod Kambli burst on to the international scene, Tendulkar was already a global superstar, and his face would smile at you from billboards in every city.

Yet, the pair was portrayed as the “boys” of the Indian team.

Ahead of the 1996 World Cup, Pepsi lost out the sponsorship battle to Coca-Cola. Unperturbed, they ran a series of ambush marketing commercials with the tagline “nothing official about it”, featuring Mohammad Azharuddin, Courtney Walsh, Ian Bishop, Dominic Cork, Dickie Bird, and — Tendulkar.

Tendulkar was still the mischievous gully cricketer. He broke the windscreen of a van, but the owner’s agitation changed to a delight when he found the miscreant, and offered him a Pepsi.

Tendulkar was appointed full-time captain for the first time later that year. As captain, he would embark upon some of the most difficult tours — in South Africa, in the West Indies.

India had an ordinary year. The media and fans were scathing in their criticism, and Tendulkar was sacked after 1997, months after he became a father.

At the same time, India found two cricketers of Tendulkar’s age. Azharuddin, Anil Kumble, and Javagal Srinath were already there, but they were not favourites of advertisers.

Pepsi set out to build on Rahul Dravid’s image as the “Gentleman” with unflinching focus amid distractions. Roughly around the same time, Reebok promoted him as The Wall — a sobriquet still used to refer to him.

Sourav Ganguly grew in stature as well, though his time would come in the new century, after he was named captain. The two seemed set to challenge Tendulkar’s supremacy in the world of advertising.

Then came 1998, the year when Tendulkar reinvented himself and established himself as the greatest in contemporary cricket.

He won famous duels with Shane Warne that year, first at home, then in Sharjah. He was named Player of the Match in the Princess of Wales Memorial Match at Lord’s in a match featuring an ensemble cast. Along with Warne, he was invited to Don Bradman’s residence for the legend’s 90th birthday.

Tendulkar was not merely an Indian superstar but India’s first global sporting icon of the satellite television era.

The commercials changed. As was often the case, Pepsi led the way with three advertisements around the 1999 World Cup, the first edition after satellite television became popular in India.

One depicted Tendulkar’s immense pan-India popularity when he emerged, much to the delight of an ocean of children donning Tendulkar masks.

Warne and Carl Hooper joined Tendulkar for the second as the “antagonists”. They spoke in Hindi, and tried to ensure they did not have to bowl to Tendulkar. The commercial, created for the Indian market, was a forerunner of numerous promotional videos created in the IPL era.

This was also almost certainly when the word aila became associated with Tendulkar. It continues to remain a favourite of his fans and mimics.

Shah Rukh Khan was part of the third commercial. Cricketers and actors have worked in commercials before, but few of SRK’s stature. To add to that, the theme of the advertisement was cricket and not cinema.

Thus, Shah Rukh Khan, despite being the main character, had to “lose” to Tendulkar in the end — just like Warne and Hooper.

Of course, SRK would not be the last Bollywood megastar to share screen space with Tendulkar in a commercial.

Let us now return to 2000, when Ganguly was appointed full-time captain less than a year after the World Cup, and a new generation of Indian cricketers — Zaheer Khan, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Virender Sehwag, Mohammad Kaif — had arrived.

Less than a decade ago, Tendulkar used to be the junior member of the side. So fast had things changed that Ganguly and Dravid, who debuted seven years after Tendulkar, were now the seniors of the team.

Tendulkar was not part of Pepsi’s advertisement that featured almost the entire Indian team, with Ganguly and Dravid as the obvious seniors.

For he had, even in the new millennium, shown little sign of slowing down. He even finished as the leading run-scorer at the 2003 World Cup. It was obvious to most that he would not only obliterate most records, but set the bar so high that they would remain unattainable for many.

While still part of the Indian team, he was incomparable as a brand. And as the records tumbled, India often came to a standstill when he strode out to bat in anticipation of a Tendulkar hundred.

Students would bunk class. Professionals would keep refreshing live scores. Fans would brave extreme weather to queue outside television stores.

Even in a country of cricket fanatics, no star had been able to stop time like Tendulkar. And Adidas depicted exactly that in one of Tendulkar’s most iconic advertisements.

India toured Pakistan in 2003-04. This was no ordinary series, for the Friendship Cup had just as much to do with diplomatic relationships as cricket.

For this, Pepsi needed a team commercial, but they also needed Tendulkar. As captain, Ganguly was the established leader, so how to use Tendulkar? In the end, the team, led by Ganguly, played out the “plot” before Tendulkar, in isolation, delivered the tag line.

More stars — Irfan Pathan, Dhoni — arrived not too long afterwards, while a tennis elbow injury kept Tendulkar out of action. Soon after Tendulkar embarked upon the second peak of his career, in 2007, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma showed up as well.

The days of portraying a teenager were long gone. Tendulkar had been trying to rediscover his mojo — and had succeeded in restoring the form of 1998. By the time the 2011 World Cup arrived, he had found his way back to the top again.

The Adidas World Cup campaign, thus, revolved around him challenging the myth of cricket being “a young man’s game”.

The World Cup ended with Tendulkar as part of the champion side at his home venue. Two-and-a-half years later, he bade farewell to the sport.