Can Brand Shah Rukh Khan outlast the Aryan Khan controversy?

One of the most successful Bollywood actors of all time, Shah Rukh Khan enjoys a cult fan following and is a favourite of the brandverse too. In his illustrious career of more than three decades, he has also endorsed more than 40 brands, including the likes of Pepsi, Fair & Handsome, Dubai Tourism, Frooti and Big Basket. In fact, he is amongst the top three stars from the industry with a brand value of Rs 300 crore, according to Duff & Phelps Celebrity Brand Valuation Study 2021.

Yet with the recent arrest of his eldest son, Aryan Khan, by Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), SRK has also faced flak as seen from the recent trolling of BYJU'S who has King Khan as its brand ambassador.

In the wake of the controversy, we asked the industry whether Shah Rukh's brand value may see a dip in the short run? The overarching thought is that the controversy, like many others in Bollywood, is going to be short-lived and King Khan's brand value may outlive it. 

Brand-Nomics MD Viren Razdan says, “I think that brand SRK won’t get impacted in the long run. The media hullabaloo will be over soon and so will the noise about this episode. Also, it’s not SRK who is in the epicenter but his son.”

Grapes Digital National Business Head Rajeesh Rajagopalan agrees, “Any celebrity’s image is tied to their public persona. The controversy will definitely be a challenging time for brand SRK. The audience will judge him, and so will brands who want to associate with him. A brand association is always closely attached to the celebrity positive persona.  It will be interesting to see how this controversy pans out in the next few days. There will definitely be some immediate reactions by brands and fans. (But) I think the impact will be short-lived.” 

However, the short-term impact could be huge on brands that use Khan’s personality as a father figure, especially BYJU’S, which is already being dragged into the controversy by the netizens. 

Deepsense Digital CEO Rakesh R highlights, “Certainly there will be an impact on how the audience perceives him, but those impacts will be restricted only towards where he acts as "Father Image" like BYJU's. Other brands like Denver etc, will not see a great impact on this. Going forward, there are chances the Indian audience might see as a typical Bollywood star or a successful actor but failed as a father.” 

Rajagopalan, however, feels that Khan would quickly come out of the mess as the audience is quite forgiving. “This incident will definitely be a setback, not just for brand BYJU’S but for the other brand association where brand SRK has a family image. But having said that SRK could still come out of this depending on the way this controversy plays out. Fans also forgive their heroes after a point in time.” 

But will BYJU’S face a long-term consequence if they choose to continue with Khan as ambassador? 

Razdan doesn’t think so. “It largely depends on how they see their partnership with SRK. However, I think the brand should lie low in the media for a while and then come back with a strong strategy. And continuing with SRK will be smarter for them in the long run.”