Can birthday boy Bobby Deol lord over brands this year?

When Bobby Deol appeared, roughly a little over the two-hour mark of the Sandeep Reddy Vanga movie Animal, crowds all over the country went wild in theatres, drowning the foot-tapping number "Jamal kudu" in a cacophony of whistles and hoots.

Portraying the mute antagonist Abrar Haque in the film, Bobby managed to steal the thunder, dare we say, even from the lead Ranbir Kapoor despite not having a single dialogue to his name. Today, there's renewed interest in the actor as evident by the scores of Instagram reels and fan-made edits.

Now with Animal, the Bobby Deol renaissance is complete, but it took 28 years in the making since his uneventful debut in the 1995 film Barsat.

The story was starkly different some years ago. Bobby's career had seemingly flat-lined after a series of dips and rises till the early 2010s until it took a fiasco to bring him back into the spotlight.

A DJing debacle in 2015 strangely worked in his favour, earning him the tribe of mock followers called Boobians and the ironic title of "Lord Bobby."

"Well, I'm very grateful for being given that title. There was a time when people didn't know about me but then they heard my songs so they would make memes out of them. Eventually, those memes got so popular that people started thinking about Bobby Deol," he once told a media house.

Memes kept him relevant and got him enough publicity to bag a role in MX Player's Ashram, for which Bobby won a lot of plaudits.

Bobby turns 55 today. On his birthday, we asked experts whether his rising popularity could add some brands to his portfolio this year. 

Ripe for endorsements?

Bobby's endorsement journey so far is nothing to write home about with just a few non-descript brands to his name. It's especially jarring considering his three decades in the industry. Scrounging through the interwebz, we did manage to find some rare ads of Bobby Deol.

A23


Airson


Kansal Baniyan

Majboot

Pantaloons

But given his recent popularity, Brand Bobby appears to be in good stead and has some strengths. 

"He is an inspirational symbol because he made a comeback journey against all odds, with a limited role and screen presence and even without dialogues but he maximized it to the hilt. In the process, he reminded us that even one small chance, if well used, can make all the difference between struggle and success," says brand consultant and founder of Bright Angles Consulting LLP, Nisha Sampath.

He's also a celeb who is in sync with the times, says Pooja Choudhury, Senior Copywriter (Entertainment), White Rivers Media. "He is willing to experiment with his roles and open to opportunities. All these things make him a very moldable artiste, one who can greatly impact the audience in his own way," she adds.

Given these strengths, brands would want to collaborate – especially while his recent hits are fresh in the memory of fans, said Sampath. "But long-term collaborations will depend on his ability to continue his comeback journey and continue delivering memorable performances," she added.

Choudhury agrees that the recent box-office success with Animal is bound to put Bobby back on the endorsement map. "While it's too early to tag him as a brand, it's high time we recognise him as a powerful media entity, for brands to cash back in on," she noted.

"As we know, neither the current audience nor the ad-makers are as traditionally wired as they were before and are completely open to trying new things (CRED for example). This makes Bobby the perfect go-to person, especially after his meteoric rise. I am sure, it's going to be the same for Bobby. He is just one tap away from being a branding boss as well!" averred Choudhury.

Sampath sees bikes, SUVs and fashion brands in his portfolio in the future. "His dark, brooding masculinity would lend itself well to these categories," she said.

His biggest flex as a potential brand, said Chaudhury, is his relatability with the younger and older generations. "Additionally, his recent success, both in films and the OTT space is an advantage that all brands would want to cash in on big time!" she said.

Conversely, communication expert and strategist, Karthik Srinivasan, believes that it's too early to get onto the Bobby hype train despite what you see on social media.

"It's perhaps too early to celebrate Bobby Deol's 'comeback.' He had a good run with Ashram, and now, in Animal, though his Class of '83, earlier, didn't work as much. Given the sparse successes, it's not surprising that he is not sought after in the endorsement circuit either. I reckon he needs a few more memorable roles and commercial successes to be truly in the 'comeback' mode," he stated.