Actor Deepika Padukone's brand value fell nearly by half in the pandemic-hit year even as cricketer Virat Kohli remained the most valued Indian celebrity in a league dominated by Bollywood stars.

Kohli, captain of the Indian cricket team, had a brand value of $237.7 million in 2020, according to Duff & Phelps Brand Value Report. Actor Akshay Kumar retained his second position with his brand value rising to $118.9 million.

Actor Ranveer Singh, with value growing to $102.9 million, kept his third place. But Padukone, who ranked third along with her husband in 2019, dropped to the fifth spot as her brand value fell to $50.4 million from $93.5 million.

Padukone’s total number of endorsements did come down because she didn’t have a major release after “Chapaak”, and she was also caught in a controversy, Aviral Jain, managing director at Duff & Phelps, said without elaborating.

Duff and Phelps said the brand value of a celebrity is based purely on their earnings potential from product brand endorsements. The assessment is based on the relative brand rankings of celebrities, average endorsement fee rates, normalised number of annual endorsements and applicable brand multiples, it said