Not just actors! Katrina Kaif, Priyanka Chopra, Alia Bhatt, Deepika Padukone are also acing the entrepreneurial game

If you are surprised by the multi-star-cast of this story, don’t be. Movie stars these days are much more than, ahem, movie stars. They are fashion trailblazers, brand ambassadors, philanthropists and do-gooders, and influencers, among other things. But why would they be included by Business Today in its premium listing of The Most Powerful Women in Business? In fact, four leading ladies make it to the prestigious list this year. Making their debut are Katrina Kaif and Alia Bhatt. Deepika Padukone is here for the second time after last year, and Priyanka Chopra Jonas is in the list of global MPW, also for the second time. They are not here for their role in the business of movie making, where they are all megastars and some have their own production houses as well. They are in the list because of their entrepreneurial ventures, and their investments in other start-ups, where they display sharp business acumen, knowledge, commitment, and unsurprising confidence borne out of investing in something they love anyway, such as beauty products, fitness, or veganism, among other things.

Let us begin this story with Kaif. A 20-year veteran of the Hindi film industry, Kaif is a stunning beauty ranked regularly among the toppers of any list of the world’s most beautiful or sexiest women, and is also one of the most Googled personalities in India. But there’s more to her than her looks. On a sultry February evening, on her way back from a 12-hour shoot, Kaif excitedly talks about her make-up brand, Kay Beauty, which she launched three years ago as a joint venture (JV) with e-commerce major Nykaa. Called Nykaa-KK Beauty, the JV set up in 2018—where Kaif holds a 41.5 per cent stake—is a direct subsidiary of Nykaa. “One of my biggest passions and interests in life from a very young age has been make-up,” says the actor.

Kaif, 39, recalls that even as a child, she could be found at beauty counters in shopping malls, exploring the textures and vibrant colours, and trying out different formulas. “Once I became a model and, subsequently, an actor, make-up was a huge part of my life,” she says, adding that she constantly interacted with some of the top make-up artists in the country and picked their brains on their favourite brands, formulations, different products and their uses. “Through those years, my knowledge increased and since it was a passion, it just led me one day to finally take the plunge to being an entrepreneur and starting my own make-up line,” she says.

It was her long-time manager Vivek Kamath who, aware that she was toying with the idea of having her own make-up line, introduced her to Falguni Nayar, the founder of Nykaa. “I immediately felt a connect with Falguni. She is an extremely passionate and strong businesswoman, someone who respected my ideas and shared my vision for starting a beauty brand like Kay Beauty. She trusted me, and trusted that my knowledge of make-up was extensive enough to actually allow me to choose the products,” says Kaif, adding that they spent two years researching before launching Kay Beauty in 2019.

Kaif is not the only one with an entrepreneurial itch. There’s also Bhatt, Padukone and Chopra Jonas, who have dived deep into entrepreneurship with their ventures, and also into investments. But wait. These four do not form a lonesome quartet. There is also Shraddha Kapoor, Malaika Arora, Anushka Sharma, Shilpa Shetty, Taapsee Pannu, Dia Mirza… the list from Bollywood is very long. Meanwhile, big names in the South have also jumped on to the bandwagon. Dubbed ‘Lady Superstar’, Nayanthara launched her brand, The Lip Balm Company, in 2021, and invested in quick-service start-up Chai Wale. Others from the South such as Samantha Ruth Prabhu and Rashmika Mandanna are also turning into entrepreneurs and investors, in what is a growing queue of movie stars adding new stripes to their wardrobe.

So, what is it that attracts movie stars to start-ups and brands? “Stars look at these investments as a retirement corpus as well as a profit-making avenue; they are essentially angel investors in these start-ups/brands,” says brand strategy consultant Harish Bijoor, Founder of Harish Bijoor Consults. “And just like other VCs, they are also hedging their bets and hoping for one or two to become a success out of 10 investments. We live in the era of start-ups, and celebs don’t want the ship to sail. So, they are pumping both their money and glamour into brands.”

Adds Manish Porwal, Managing Director of Alchemist Marketing & Talent Solutions: “Women stars have shorter screen lives. So, they need to amortise their equity over a period of time. This is how you mitigate the risk in the industry.” Agrees Bunty Sajdeh, MD & CEO of talent management firm Dharma Cornerstone Agency: “Today, most female actors are looking at start-ups seriously across categories—beauty, cosmetics, hair, skin, clothing, even jewellery. Their first preference is to do an investment and structure more integrated models around them.”

It’s not a bad move. Consider this: Aside from insuring their future, they are also smartly investing mostly in the beauty and personal care or BPC segment in India, an area that is growing and one that they are also familiar with, thanks to their line of work. According to Redseer, the BPC market grew at a CAGR of 9 per cent from $14-15 billion in 2017 to $22-23 billion in 2022. And by 2027, 30-33 per cent of BPC sales in India will happen online, according to industry estimates; the overall market will be $30 billion by then. The other areas being targeted by these stars are also equally promising.

Let’s now take a deeper look into the investments by these movie stars. Nykaa happens to be among the favourites, with both Kaif and Bhatt investing in it, and Chopra Jonas partnering with it for her own hair care brand Anomaly. Stars also have their own ventures—Bhatt has kidswear brand Ed-a-Mamma, and Padukone has skincare brand 82°E (pronounced Eighty Two East). Bhatt has also invested in Phool.co—a start-up that collects flowers from across temples in India and creates incense sticks, essential oils, decor, etc. Padukone is invested in over 10 start-ups including Greek yoghurt brand Epigamia, furniture rental start-up Furlenco, cab company BluSmart, spacetech company Bellatrix and edtech company FrontRow, among others. (She has exited a few of these firms since investing.) Chopra Jonas is invested in online dating site Bumble India, Silicon Valley-based Holberton School and US online marketplace for apartments Apartment List, among others.

Among the others, Anushka Sharma has invested in D2C snack brand Slurrp Farm and plant-based meat brand Blue Tribe (along with husband and ace cricketer Virat Kohli), and Shraddha Kapoor is an investor in Indian beauty brand MyGlamm and luxury furnishing brand BellaCasa. Similarly, Shilpa Shetty is both an investor and the face of D2C brand Mamaearth. In 2018, Shetty picked up 0.52 per cent stake worth Rs 6.8 crore in the venture. She is the ambassador-investor of Fullife Healthcare’s brands Fast&Up and Chicnutrix. She has also launched her own yoga app ‘Simple Soulful’.

Malaika Arora is the investor-brand ambassador of the ayurvedic D2C brand Kapiva. It was the first investment by her firm Malaika Arora Ventures, which invests and associates with select brands in lifestyle, health and wellness segments. As part of the association, Arora will also be a wellness mentor at the Kapiva Academy of Ayurveda. She is also the Co-founder of the brand SARVA Yoga and has been featured in its ad campaign. Most recently, she became the strategic investor and brand ambassador of the dessert brand Get-A-Way. She has also backed the food brand Nude Bowls and the e-commerce brand The Label Life.

What drives this new breed of investors?

Kaif says she is open to the idea of investing in start-ups provided they are looking to fill a gap in the market in a category she is passionate about, and one she feels she can contribute to. “I don’t look at launching brands, but if I am passionate about something and the opportunity arises for me to step into the market, and I feel that I can add something, that is when I take that step. There are only one or two other product categories where I do see myself stepping into the market because they are again passions of mine and something I feel I can add to in that space. Not revealing what it is yet, though,” she says.

Kaif is very hands-on with the daily working of her brand Kay Beauty. “Since this is my passion, I don’t count it as part of my working hours and often work till late into the night only to be told by my husband [actor Vicky Kaushal] to switch off the phone,” laughs Kaif, adding that she looks into things like ingredients of the products, the ad campaigns, the look and feel of the product, etc. “Being an entrepreneur is not a nine-to-five job. Having a brand and taking care of it is like having your baby. It’s something you want to nurture, something you want to see grow.” Kaif says the brand will expand into other categories, but her current focus is on its expansion in terms of distribution. While it is present online on Nykaa.com, it can be found offline at 125-plus stores across India.

While Kaif’s passion drives her choice of investment, for Bhatt it is people. “When I invest, I invest in people. I invest in ideas. I don’t look at balance sheets and turnover. I need to connect with the story,” the 29-year-old Bhatt told BT over a Zoom call from her Mumbai home last November, when she was still a few weeks away from delivering her first child, Raha. Bhatt’s brand Ed-a-Mamma—named after her cat, Edward, who she says is her inspiration for everything including her production house, Eternal Sunshine, which has a cat as a part of the logo—has expanded into maternity wear. Recently it launched clothes for infants and teens as well. “It all fits into the narrative where Ed-a-Mamma is not only for the babies but it is also for the mums. The recall value of the brand is that you can come and shop for yourself, the baby, infant, kids and teenagers,” says Bhatt, dressed in a rose-pink top, hair tied up in a ponytail with minimal makeup.

Ed-a-Mamma is her baby (the company is bootstrapped with Bhatt owning it) and, like Kaif, she is very hands-on with things like marketing campaigns. Not only does she sign off on big decisions, but she also likes to be involved in everyday affairs such as selecting the clothes for the kids in the ad campaigns. “I am a little bit of a control freak, especially when it comes to our campaigns going out,” she says. Given her hectic shooting schedule, her team connects with her on Zoom on her way to and back from work. “Sometimes even on the way to the bathroom,” she laughs. While currently the brand is available online on her own site, Myntra and Tata CLiQ, and offline in some 40-odd stores of Lifestyle, she is looking at expansion. “Eventually I want it to be available all over the planet. That is the dream for the brand.”

Investing, says Bhatt, is a bit like making a film. “If you want to make a film that is widely successful at the box office, you have to see how wide the story is and how many people it is connecting with. It cannot be niche. You can make a niche film but then you have to give up on the amount of money that it will probably bring back to the producer. Similarly, with a business idea, the intention is to go as wide as possible.” Nykaa, she says, was a no-brainer. Led by a woman, Falguni Nayar, “it was a case of bringing India’s best along with the best of the world”. Bhatt connected with the Phool Founder Ankit Agarwal twice over Zoom and made up her mind as she loved the idea that he was providing employment to many women and reducing waste, too.

Now let’s look at how this whole thing works. Sajdeh says that these start-up-celebrity associations prove to be a win-win for both parties. It’s a wealth management option for the celebrity. Often, start-ups are not able to afford celebrities, so they pay celebs a certain percentage of the endorsement fee and the rest in stocks in their company. “If I am an up-and-coming brand and I am getting a celeb on board to endorse my product, it’s not just a vertical transaction where you shoot for eight hours and you carry on with your life. You actually integrate with the brand. For your Rs 50 stock to become Rs 500, you need to build the brand with me,” he says. That involves integrating the brand in your life and promoting it on social media. For instance, Bhatt is the brand ambassador for Phool, and Padukone has endorsed Epigamia and Nua.

Also, since a start-up would require three to five years to build up, it will work with somebody that will be relevant during that period and not someone at the fag end of their career. “What an actor may say is, I’ll take X amount in stock and endorse your brand. In the next three years, we’ll review. If you don’t need me or I feel it’s not working for me, I won’t promote it but just sit on the stock. So, the celebrity has the option to stay or go,” explains Sajdeh, adding that when actors invest in a company, it’s also a risk for them. So, they negotiate in a way that they are able to make a substantial profit on their returns. “There’s no specific metric, but they look at it from a longevity point of view. If someone gets into the company through stocks at the age of 25-30, she can own it for as long as she wants even if her screen relevance goes away.”

A Mumbai-based financial adviser, who prefers to be anonymous, says that women stars have a lower risk appetite because they earn less than their male counterparts. “As the male actors’ investible surplus and disposable income is higher, their risk appetite is also higher. Male actors look at pretty much the same instruments as women, but their appetite for PE investments is higher.” He says for women stars, the investment pie includes 25-30 per cent of funds directed towards buying their own house in Mumbai, around 40 per cent in debt instruments, and 20-25 per cent in listed equity through the MF route.

In terms of selecting the start-ups to invest in, unlike Bhatt, most actors don’t just go with their gut but also depend on investment advisers for financial due diligence. For example, Padukone’s investments are made through KA Enterprises, which is her family office and mentions her and her father, former badminton superstar Prakash Padukone, as directors. Jigar K. Shah, a former venture capitalist and now fund manager at KA Enterprises, manages all her assets—unlisted, listed and fixed income. Shah has strategised and led investments in FrontRow, Nua, Atomberg, Mokobara and Supertails. “We operate as a decent-sized early-stage fund. We are stage-agnostic and our cheque sizes are typically Rs 3-5 crore. Our investment thesis depends on the differentiated value proposition the company is offering… We also look at the team and their execution abilities,” he says, adding that KA Enterprises is run like a venture shop. “For Deepika, it’s more like a gut-driven decision-making process, whereas I take most of the meetings around business models, channel checks and due diligence. She is the heart and I am the mind of KA.”

Shah is also the Co-founder for DPKA Universal Consumer Ventures, under which Padukone’s brand 82°E was launched last year. The company was set up in 2021. “BPC companies started reaching out to us to get Deepika on board either as a brand ambassador or at some promotional event. But she always wanted to set up her own brand. So, we looked at everything from fledgeling idea-stage BPC companies to large venture-funded ones to even incumbent brands. But we were not convinced with the stakes that they were offering. Deepika wanted more control and involvement in shaping the narrative,” says Shah. Padukone’s brand, which is also a BPC one, marries Ayurveda with science and has its own R&D lab in Bengaluru. She is hands-on and tries all products on her own skin before she gives the go-ahead, says Shah. Currently, the brand has four products, but is launching more at monthly intervals. The brand, targeted at “women on the go” in the 25-35 age group, is available at present only on its own D2C platform, 82e.com.

For Chopra Jonas, it’s all about the ideas. “I have always believed that ideas are truly the currency of the present… and great ideas take us from the present into the future. So I tend to look at potential investments from a perspective of the need gap they fill… how are they making something better than what exists or if they are creating a whole new idea itself,” she tells BT in an email interaction. “I think my investment outlook is based on the idea and its execution. That is important to me. Yes, I do want to have a broader portfolio and not stick to just one category or industry, so I keep my options open. That isn’t to say that that I won’t look at doing different things within the same category,” she adds. Late last year she launched Anomaly in India in partnership with Nykaa. Chopra Jonas says that this partnership will help her understand Indian consumers better, aiding her journey as an entrepreneur.

Then there is social media, which allows celebrities to connect directly with fans. The leading ladies of Bollywood understand the social media game well. With millions of followers on Twitter and Instagram, they are their own brands’ biggest ambassadors. Also, it’s important for them to be associated with brands they can identify with. “Stars also know that fans understand when they are doing something for money and something because they actually used the product and it’s not just an association. For instance, Malaika Arora is known to be a fitness icon and she endorses a yoga brand. She has invested in a health food brand. These are categories she can resonate with and can promote very organically and people would believe it. Anushka, too, genuinely loves and consumes the vegan meat brand,” says Sajdeh.

Like every new development that gathers muscle over the years, the trend of stars of the silver screen bolstering their purses and their futures with new-age start-ups is something that has many complex layers. But one thing is clear. This trend is not about to go away. If anything, it will only get stronger with time.

@smitabw, @SaysVidya, @mittermaniac, @PLidhoo