Tokyo Olympics gold medallist Neeraj Chopra is not doubt the toast of nation after becoming only the second Indian individual gold medal-winner at the Olympics last month. It is no surprise that Neeraj Chopra’s brand value has increased by about 1000 per cent since coming back from Tokyo with corporates already lining up at his door to sign him up as their brand ambassador.
According to JSW, who manage Neeraj Chopra’s public relations account as well as represent the Indian javelin star, the endorsement fees of the Indian star has now increased by at least 10 times. “The increase in brand value of Neeraj Chopra is due to his non-cricketing achievements. Apart from this he is also lined up to sign five-six deals with luxury auto and apparel brand in the next few weeks,” a JSW official was quoted as saying by Dainik Bhaskar.
Neeraj Chopra has already signed up deals with Byju’s, Tata AIA Life Insurance and a top pharmaceutical apart from bring brand ambassador of Gillete, Exon Mobile and Muscle Blaze as well.
Neeraj Chopra’s brand endorsement fees for a year is now expected to be around Rs 2.5 crore per year which puts him in the same league as top Indian cricketers like Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma. Kohli earns between Rs 1 to 5 crore per year, the same as former India captain and Chennai Super Kings skipper MS Dhoni. Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul’s fees are in the range of Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1 crore per year.
Meanwhile, days after raising a major storm over his comments about Pakistan javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem, Neeraj Chopra almost landed in another soup when historian and curator Rajeev Sethi put him in an awkward position.
Neeraj Chopra needed to come out and give clarification on social media about his comments on Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem in an interview to TOI. In a recent interview, Sethi asked Neeraj Chopra, India’s second individual gold medallist after Abhinav Bindra, “How do you maintain a balance between your sex life and athletic training? I know this is a weird question,” asked Sethi, making Neeraj very uncomfortable.
Chopra, being in an awkward situation, tried to evade the question and responded by saying, “Sorry, sir. I have said sorry, you can know my answer from that,” implying he doesn’t want to answer the question.
In the video, Sethi still persists with the question, and when Chopra turns it down a second time, the historian says, “Forgive me for asking that…," and before he can explain, Chopra, while trying to control his anger, cuts him off to say, “Aapke question se mera maan toh bhar gaya," which loosely translates to ‘My heart is overwhelmed by your question.’
