Ayurvedic FMCG company Emami Ltd has signed a deal with Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan for endorsing its Navratna cool hair oil brand.

Harsha Agarwal, director of Emami Ltd, said at a press conference in Kolkata that although other celebrities like Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly and popular Hindi film star Govinda were already endorsing the product, Big B had been roped in for his universal appeal.

Navratna cool oil hair is the flagship brand of the company valued at Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion), he said.

Asked about the value of the contract with Bachchan, Agarwal refused to divulge the amount, but sources said Big B was reportedly paid Rs 12 crore (Rs 120 million) for the 12-day shoot for the ad film jointly conceived by Prahlad Kakkar and Alyque Padamsee.

Asked about the market share of Emami in the cool hair oil segment, he said that it was 55 per cent of the Rs 200-crore (Rs 2 billion) market.