Forget high-fashion apparel and luxury clothing lines, India’s biggest film stars are obsessing over moisturizers, serums, and sunscreens. From Deepika Padukone’s 82°E and Kriti Sanon’s Hyphen to South cinema icon Nayanthara’s 9Skin and Vijay Deverakonda’s Unhype, personal care products have officially dethroned apparel as the preferred business vehicle for celebrity capital in India.

With India’s skincare market ballooning into a $10 billion+ powerhouse, top film stars are no longer content renting out their faces as brand ambassadors for fixed fees. Instead, they are stepping up as co-founders, category builders, and venture capitalists—building long-term commercial empires.

How Katrina and Priyanka Rewrote the Rules

For decades, Indian celebrities were merely paid endorsees for legacy personal care brands. That dynamic changed permanently thanks to two global icons:

Priyanka Chopra Jonas co-created Anomaly alongside brand incubator Maesa. By focusing on mass accessibility and sustainable packaging, Chopra proved that an Indian star could build a scalable, cross-border beauty brand from the ground up.

Katrina Kaif made history in 2019 by launching Kay Beauty in a 50/50 joint venture with Nykaa. Crossing ₹200 crore in annual revenue and expanding globally into prestige spaces like the UK's Space NK, Kaif demonstrated that beauty—not fashion—was a high-margin corporate asset class.

The Business Case: Why Beauty Beats Fashion

For actors and their venture capital backers, choosing a serum over a clothing line comes down to fundamental business logic.

Apparel requires managing complex size matrices across varied regional fits, alongside high return rates in e-commerce. Skincare, hair care, and cosmetics are universal, size-inclusive, and shelf-stable for up to 24 months.

Personal care formulations boast gross margins of 70% to 80%, far outstripping clothing lines burdened by fabric sourcing, pattern variations, and heavy deadstock markdowns.

Furthermore, the rise of quick-commerce apps like Blinkit, Zepto, and Instamart has turned skincare into an automated replenishment habit. Consumers don't buy a new jacket every two months, but they rapidly run out of sunscreen and face wash.

How Indian Stars Are Structuring Brands Today

Following the trail blazed by Kay Beauty and Anomaly, Indian stars across film industries are deploying distinct operational strategies to capture different market tiers:

Vijay Deverakonda’s Unhype

Actor Vijay Deverakonda co-founded Unhype to focus specifically on Indian climate issues—humidity, sweat, pollution, and hard water. Operating on an "anti-hype," science-led approach, the brand targets young consumers with simplified, accessible 3-step routines.

Kriti Sanon’s Hyphen

Launched alongside the founding team behind mCaffeine (Pep Brands), Kriti Sanon's Hyphen operates as an operator-led venture. By marrying Sanon's reach with pre-built supply chains and performance marketing, the brand crossed major revenue milestones by targeting everyday consumers with mass-prestige pricing (₹400–₹600).

Deepika Padukone’s 82°E

82°E took the institutional venture-capital path (raising seed funding from DSG Consumer Partners and IDEO) to capture the premium wellness buyer. Combining Indian botanical ingredients with scientific compounds, the brand later expanded into omnichannel physical retail through Reliance Retail’s Tira to grow beyond direct-to-consumer (DTC) digital channels.

Nayanthara’s 9Skin

Co-founded by actor Nayanthara and director Vignesh Shivan, 9Skin leveraged her massive South Indian fanbase to launch simultaneously across India, Malaysia, and Singapore, taking advantage of strong regional diaspora demand before cementing domestic physical retail partnerships.

What Lies Ahead

From Katrina Kaif's category-defining cosmetics entry to Vijay Deverakonda's focus on daily functional formulas, the Indian celebrity beauty sector is moving from novelty to consolidation. As multinational conglomerates and retail giants like Reliance and Nykaa continue acquiring or partnering with these labels, the surviving brands will be those that prioritize formula efficacy, realistic pricing, and long-term supply chain strategy over short-term star power.