Neeraj Chopra had won gold during the Tokyo Olympics 2021.
Sports stardom is quite a beast to manage, and offers very little margin for laxity. The shelf life of a sportsperson on top of their game, both on the playing field as well as in the brand arena, is pretty less. Unless you, veritably, classify yourself as a legend, while also avoiding controversies and pitfalls. Or, you are in a sport that transcends the marketability quotient with its sheer popularity. Cricket is that sport in India. Virat Kohli is that legend. Enter Neeraj Chopra!
The year was 2017. Chopra, a junior world champion by then, had earned a reputation as a talent with potential for greatness. During an interaction at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) centre in Patiala, Chopra answered our questions before pointing at his friend sitting nearby, saying, “Please interview him as well. He is really good”. That friend, Rohit Yadav, also featured in the World Championships javelin final in Oregon last weekend. Yadav is good, but is quite a way off Chopra’s marks of excellence. Chopra has now added a world silver to go with his Olympic gold, further attesting his credential as one of the best javelin throwers of this generation.
Chopra has hit a purple patch, both in terms of performance and endorsement deals. His brand worth has, reportedly, risen almost 10 times in the past one year. Before his Olympic gold, Chopra’s deals would fetch him a yearly contract of Rs 25-35 lakh per brand. Post the gold, he attracts Rs 2.5 to 4 crore, taking his brand closer to Kohli, who earns upwards of Rs 5 to 8 crore per brand on an average.
Chopra, who was a Nike athlete till the Tokyo Olympics, signed with Under Armour recently an unprecedented multi-year deal, reportedly with the possibility of launching his own line of products.
He happens to be Under Armour’s first brand ambassador in India, and the exact details of the deal is not released yet. The plunge is not quite a leap of faith, but a calculated move by the US brand which wants to associate its image with Chopra’s rising fortunes.
More brands are pursuing Chopra as you read this. He attracts more money than most cricketing stars in India, including Rohit Sharma or KL Rahul, who earn Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1 crore per year from a brand.
Brand Chopra’s rise is meteoric, and understandably so. He is an Olympic champion in a country starved of such achievers. However, a couple of more factors may have contributed in taking him where no previous Olympic medallists have been. Abhinav Bindra, after winning his gold in Beijing 2008, never really caught the endorsement bandwagon. Brands stayed away since India’s only individual Olympic champion back then was not offering them the kind of visibility or engagement they hoped for.
Chopra is poles apart from Bindra. He is active on social media, even as he attends and wins international meets throughout the year. He is constantly present in conversations both online and offline, and javelin has a sizable Indian following now thanks to him. Besides, with a lower middle class upbringing, and an aspiration to make it large, he has a connection that touches more than 90 percent of India's young population. This is a sizable demography for any brand to target.
Chopra also offers a breath of fresh air for brands in a cricketer-crowded space. The brands who have roped in Chopra since Tokyo (from Tata AIG Life Insurance, Cred, and Byju’s to GoodDot IQOO and Under Armour in the past one year) would have assessed his marketability, comparing it with the most popular stars in India.
Cricket will always remain popular in India, but endorsement fatigue is a possibility. Chopra’s persona here adds novelty. His potential rivals in the brand endorsement pie would be young stars from cricket such as Hardik Pandya, an IPL-winning skipper, and a regular in the Indian team setup. Pandya has a flashy and brash off-field persona, while his on-field philosophy mirrors that of Kohli. It is natural for brands to look for fresh outlooks rather than stick to Kohli clones. Chopra, a fresh face from another sport with a grounded, boy-next-door charm, presents something different.
He also seems set for more; Chopra is yet to hit his peak. Scientific studies have shed light that top athletes peak by the mid-30s in javelin, when their grip strength and technical refinement hit the maximum. Chopra, at 24, has a few more years to get there. While an injury will see him out of action from the upcoming Commonwealth Games, he manages his performances and niggles with the same level of professionalism any top athlete does. He has the backing of not just the Government of India, or the Indian Army, but also a corporate sports entity like JSW Sport.
Brand Chopra looks set to stay, and could tumble a few India Inc endorsement records, which were previously the domain of cricketers, and in the process possibly setting a path and precedent for athletes from many other sports to explore.
Leslie Xavier is a Delhi-based sports journalist. Twitter: @poetbelly. Views are personal, and do not represent the stand of this publication.
