Almost every film celebrity in India is into the fitness and wellness business. Celebrities care for their looks and bodies and naturally understand more about fitness and wellness, and as such a fitness business is a natural extension for many of them. Here, we take a look at the fitness and wellness businesses of Indian film celebrities.
The sports, fitness and wellness space in India is growing, and has attracted the attention of cash rich Bollywood actors and producers as attractive investment option.
Film celebrities are always looking for investment options (besides making films of course) that will fetch them good returns. It looks as if India’s health and fitness market has caught their attention.
Indians have become more health conscious and they have the money to spend, more kids are playing sports than ever before, government is pouring money in sports infrastructure, there are lots of physical fitness training options available, more and more wearable devices are getting launched and people are buying it.
Schools, colleges, corporates, hospitals, residential areas are all opening up to fitness as an essential lifestyle habit, further driving up the demand.
Here are a few Bollywood celebrities who have invested in fitness and wellness startups as per this report.
- Deepika Padukone has invested in Drum Foods International Pvt. Ltd, maker of flavoured yogurt Epigamia
- Suniel Shetty has invested in Pune-based fitness startup – SQUATS.
- Mumbai-based startup SARVA raised funds from celebrities like Jennifer Lopez, American basketball legend Alex Rodriguez and Malaika Arora.
- Actor, politician Gul Panag has invested in MobieFit and is also a personal running coach on the app
- Madhuri Dixit Nene has picked up a stake in fit-tech and wearable device startup GOQii
- Jacqueline Fernandes invested in healthy juice maker Raw Pressery
- Hrithik Roshan launched his own brand of workout gear – HRX that was picked up by Myntra and further signed a deal with Cure.Fit to design specialised HRX workouts for the app and its offline fitness centres.
- Sports icons like Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Mahesh Bhupathi and others have also made significant startup investments in fitness related companies – mostly their own sportswear brand
Shilpa Shetty
Its no secret that Bollywood Actor Shilpa has sheer passion and enthusiasm for fitness and post her acting stint had been working on improving her knowledge on health and nutrition.
And now she is on a mission to change how India stays fit.
Shilpa Shetty also has her own app that is about workouts, nutrition, and different programmes designed to help you stay healthy and fit.
The app features several programs including weight loss, Daily Yoga Routine, Flat Belly Program, Post-pregnancy Weight Loss programme, and bespoke target-based programmes, yoga routines, and diet plans.
In 2018, Shilpa also invested in Mamaearth, a mother and child care products startup; Shilpa is an equity investor in the startup.
However, Shilpa says her focus at present is only on the Shilpa Shetty app.
Gul Panag
Bollywood actress Gul Panag, who’s also actively involved in Politics (associated with Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP party) has launched a fitness app named ‘First Run’ that provides useful running tips for First-Time Runners. The application is meant for those fitness enthusiasts who want to inculcate the habit of running and stay fit.
“Wherever I go, people are eager to know how I remain so fit and want to know my fitness secrets. I tell each of them that I run, that’s it. This habit was inculcated in me by my father at the age of 16, who urged me to run. At that age, I had the misconception that only overweight people run and since I was slim, I didn’t need to,” said Gul.
I’m sure fitness experts would agree that running is a great way to stay fit for those who have joint pain can go slow and stick to walking instead. She feels it’s very important to be fit, in order to live your life to the fullest. Being fit increases your mental capacity and physical capacity.
Panag feels that the app is the most natural progression for fitness and technology to come together. ‘First Run’ is a product whose purpose is to get people who have never run before in their lives, and cannot run for more than one minute for the first time, to have them running 30 minutes at a time or almost five kilometres within nine weeks, as claimed by their company spokesman.
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