New Delhi:
Saina Nehwal stunned an entire nation when she recently revealed that when she was born, her grandmother refused to see her because she wasn't the grandson she'd been hoping for.
Now, the entire nation's paying money to see the badminton star. In fact, four advertisers are paying her Rs 1 crore per endorsement.
Her entry into the big league - every other sports star in the one-crore field is a cricketer - has been hard-earned. She's won three major titles this year- and a Commonwealth Games gold that pushed India to second place, ahead of England.
Airtel -known for using the country's biggest celebrities for their ads -have signed her on for 1 crore. The commercial will be released at the end of the year.
"The sponsorship will really help me to do well in the future tournaments. I can play more freely with this new sponsorship deal," says Saina.
India's most-wanted sports celebrities are Sachin Tendulkar and MS Dhoni. While Dhoni endorses more brands (5 crores each for 19 brands), Sachin comes at a heftier price-tag (5 crores for 10 brands).
Sehwag follows with 1.5 crores per year per endorsement.
After recent poor performances, Sania Mirza is down to endorsing two brands for 75 lakhs each.
Boxer Vijender Singh at 35 lakhs per deal is also hot property -he's signed on with 5 different advertisers.
"If you see her performances and brand value over the last 18 months, no one has risen so fast so quickly and while you have other people like Viswanathan Anand or Abhinav Bindra, but just in terms of pure rise over the last year in terms of performances and brand value, she is your number one non-cricketing sportsperson, says Indranil Das Blah, Chief Operating Officer of Kwan Entertainment & Marketing.
Mahesh Bhupathi's Globosport, which got Saina her first major deal with Herbal-Life in 2008 still works with Saina. And they know this is a bumper year. "She truly deserves everything she is getting & it's only just going to get bigger and better," said Bhupathi. Especially if she wins a medal at the Asian Games next month.
Saina is currently managed by Deccan Chronicle, which also owns the Deccan Chargers in the IPL.