Bollywood and cricket might be the two passions of India, but when it comes to celebrity brands’ visibility on TV, the silver screen stars are clearly ahead of sporting heroes.

Only two Indian cricketers - M S Dhoni and Sachin Tendulkar - figure in a list of the 10 most visible celebrities featuring in TV ads. There are no other sportspersons in the list.

And while Shah Rukh Khan may be the undisputed badshah of Bollywood, he’s been pipped in this particular race by Chhote Nawab Saif Ali Khan.

According to the AdEx Survey, prepared by TAM Media Research, TV ads featuring Saif Ali Khan appeared for as many as 45 lakh seconds through 2007. SRK followed with 42 lakh seconds, while Amitabh Bachchan was third with 32 lakh.

Hrithik Roshan may not be seen too often on the silver screen these days, but he’s highly visible in ads, coming in fourth with 31 lakh seconds.

Kajol - another star whose movies are few and far between - was fifth overall and the highest-ranked woman with 22 lakh seconds. Dhoni followed close behind at No. 6, ahead of Tendulkar.

Preity Zinta, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Juhi Chawla rounded off the top 10. With 13.2 lakh seconds, Chawla was ahead of reigning box-office draws like Priyanka Chopra (11 lakh seconds), Bipasha Basu (6.4 lakh) and Kareena Kapoor (6 lakh).

However, SRK and the Big B continue to endorse the largest number of brands. In 2006, Bachchan endorsed 41 brands, SRK had 35. But in 2007, the tables were turned: King Khan endorsed 39 brands with 21 advertisers while Bachchan was brand ambassador for 36 brands with 20 advertisers.

In terms of visibility, Dhoni, Sachin and Dravid (8 lakh seconds) were well ahead of other Indian sportspersons, including Yuvraj Singh (6 lakh) and Irfan Pathan (4 lakh). The highest-ranked non-cricketing sports star was N Karthikeyan (1.5 lakh seconds).
Interestingly, small screen actors fared quite well too. TV star Hussain, with 8.85 lakh seconds, came in ahead of Bollywood hunks Akshay Kumar (8.7 lakh) and Salman Khan (2 lakh),while female stars like Mona ‘Jassi’ Singh (3.4 lakh) and Smriti

‘Tulsi’ Irani (3.35 lakh) made their mark as well.

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