BACKSTORY: How badnaam Munni boosted Zandu balm sales; why Emami entered men's beauty cream segment

More than 100 years ago, when a descendant of a legendary Vaidya – a master physician practicing Ayurveda – started making ayurvedic medicines based on ancient scriptures, he would have never thought that the centenary milestone would be marked by its flagship pain relieving balm featuring in a risqué Bollywood item number.

Zandu balm traces its origins way back to 1910 when Jugatram Vadiya – grandson of the legendary Mahatma Zandu Bhattji – started the Zandu Pharmaceutical Works to manufacture various ayurvedic medicines.

While the balm has remained an effective remedy for headache, body ache and cold over the century, its parentage changed in 2008 when Emami acquired Zandu Pharma.

In 2010, Zandu Balm found its way into the lyrics of item number "Munni badnaam hui" in the hit movie "Dabangg", which means audacious.

The new owners of Zandu were not happy with Malaika Arora in the video singing "Mein Zandu balm hui, darling tere liye", as the film makers had not taken permission from the company.

Emami filed a lawsuit for trademark violation, but later settled out of court. Moreover, the company decided to capitalise on Malaika Arora's star appeal by signing her up as brand ambassador.

While Zandu Balm was already a household name by then, the hit number did help the company improve sales.

"It just happened. They just took the brand name on their own… It (the song) became a super hit. Finally, we went to them, we did a contract. It was a roaring success. I would say it helped sales as well," said Mohan Goenka, Director, Emami in an interview with CNBC-TV18's Mangalam Maloo in 2017.

Interestingly, it was not the first time Emami or one of its brands was being associated with a song or a film.

In 1983, the company had an entire movie with the biggest stars of that era advertising for Emami.

"We have been pioneers in this. There is a very old movie named 'Agar Tum Na Hote' where the whole movie is around Emami. Rajesh Khanna played the owner the owner of Emami in the film, Rekha acted as a model for Emami and Raj Babbar was a photographer. So, we have been doing this since those days," said Harsha Vardhan Agarwal, Director at Emami.

It was a routine visit to a store and the sight of boys buying women fairness creams that Emami chanced upon the idea of exploring the possibility of a fairness cream specially made for men. Along came ‘Fair And Handsome’.

Goenka, himself a loyal customer of the product, says that he was touring one of the markets in 2002 when he saw boys from a nearby hostel buying the product for women, which made him think of a fairness cream for men.

"I asked the retailer why these guys were buying female fairness cream. He said from his shop almost 50 percent of sales come from these boys who live in a hostel.

"And suddenly the idea came. Then we did a lot of research and found that 30 percent of the men used fairness creams for women. Trust me, I am using this product for the last 12 years every day. If you have seen me then and now there is a visible difference," Goenka said in the interview.

While the market for fairness creams – including both for men and women – is huge, there has been a shift in consumer behaviour especially amid social campaigns against products that encourage a fair skin tone.

Emami was affected, but the company believes that it is only giving a choice to consumer while respecting everyone's choice.

"Sometimes people have different opinions. And we are absolutely fine with it. It is an individual opinion. Some people are for it and some people are not for it. And we value everybody's choice. We believe it's a choice and we want to give the consumer a choice," said Agarwal.

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