India’s costliest Rs 75 crore TV ad made by Rohit Shetty, backed by Yash Raj Films, featured this Bollywood superstar

India’s most expensive commercial advertisement was made on a budget fit for a Bollywood blockbuster. It wasn’t for a luxury product like a costly car, jewellery, premium clothing or real estate. The TV commercial was for an FMCG brand trying to make inroads into a market dominated by the likes of Nestle’s Maggi. The solution was a TV ad that pretended to be an action movie. 

It was directed by none other than Rohit Shetty, the filmmaker who has revolutionised Bollywood action sequences in recent years. The ad was backed by the richest film studio in India Yash Raj Films and its budget reportedly climbed to a whopping Rs 75 crore due to cutting-edge VFX and arguably the star actor who features in it. The ad was for the brand Ching's noodles. The Bollywood star who featured in it and holds the tag for acting in the costliest TV ad is Ranveer Singh. 

It was aptly titled ‘Ranveer Ching Returns’. It came to be popularly known as the ‘My Name Is Ranveer Ching’ ad. The 5 minute 30 seconds ad premiered on Television on August 28, 2016. Online, it gained a whopping 20 lakh views on YouTube in just 2 days. Getting Ranveer Singh to endorse the brand on the height of his popularity worked and it saw sales grow by 150 percent. 

Meanwhile, Ranveer Singh is currently the reigning India's most valued celebrity after he overtook star cricketer Virat Kohli in 2022, according to corporate investigation and risk consulting firm Kroll’s findings. Ranveer knocked Kohli off the perch after 5 years as his brand value climbed to $181.7 million against the cricketer’s at $176.9 million, revealed the “Celebrity Brand Valuation Report 2022: Beyond the Mainstream” report.