There’s no denying it; we are, as a nation, obsessed with India. We queue up in cinemas to watch their movies, a considerable TV audience is addicted to their sob-fest saas-bahu soaps and we dance to their songs at weddings. A 'Shiela' or a 'Fevicol'? Heck, yeah.

But when an Indian celebrity turns up on a local billboard, it immediately becomes a source of contention. Why is there an Indian face selling a product in the Pakistani market, critics complain.

Well, why not? Notwithstanding our cricket heroes, Indian celebrities are extremely well-known, well-loved faces in Pakistan — anybody who’s been unable to get a cinema ticket for the latest ‘house-full’ Shahrukh Khan-starrer can attest to this. In fact, it is the pulling power of Bollywood movies that has resulted in the re-growth of cinemas and the much-touted revival of Pakistani films.

Speaking pragmatically, Bollywood’s star-power and glamour is often manifold compared to the gloss of our local icons. A case in point is mobile brand Q-Mobile’s ad campaigns which have featured a battalion of local stars — Atif Aslam, Humayun Saeed, Ayesha Khan, Ali Zafar, Danish Taimoor and Fawad Khan to name a few.

The moment, however, we were all able to pronounce ‘Noir’ was when Bollywood siren Kareena Kapoor sauntered into a TV ad, holding the cellphone in her hand. The up-and-coming Indian hero Arjun Kapoor, followed soon, jiving to yet another ‘Noir’ ad campaign and quickly making the fledgling brand rise in popularity.

Sonam Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor and Arjun Kapoor in Q-Mobile Ads. - Photo courtesy: Q-Mobile's Official Facebook page

A marketing expert who prefers to remain anonymous elaborates: “Now, Q-Mobile is cool. You wouldn’t have been caught dead using it two years ago, but the brand’s association changed things. Most mobile sets are pretty much the same in terms of features. The face that represents the brand becomes the selling point.

"Having an Indian actor in an ad may cost crores while a Pakistani will charge lakhs. But mobile companies have huge budgets for their ads on TV — what are a few crores to them? It makes perfect business sense.”

And so, from lawn to mobile phones to soaps to shampoos to hair removal creams, India’s glitterati continues to entice us from billboards and television ads, tempting us to the wayward paths of consumerism.

For a new brand, an Indian face manages to pique consumer interest. One remembers Firdous lawn, making a splash in the market four years ago with billboards featuring Kareena Kapoor. The fact that this hitherto unknown lawn could rake out the moolah for the hit actress certainly lent it credibility. Suddenly, Firdous figured on the avid lawn-shopper’s radar. It’s no wonder that the brand followed up the next year with another Bollywood beauty, Deepika Padukone.

Deepika Padukone in Firdous Lawn 2011 collection. - Photo courtesy: pakistanifashiontrendzz.blogspot.com

Firdous has long shifted focus to local models, but Director Omer Saleem recalls how the initial use of Indian faces helped his brand gain international recognition.

“Indian actresses are popular not just in Pakistan, but also in the markets to which our fabric gets exported, predominantly UAE, Bangladesh and India. Having them model our lawn during the initial years definitively helped us gain a stronghold over the market,” shared Saleem.

A plethora of other lawn brands followed in Firdous’ wake. Strict rules in cantonment areas, prohibiting billboards with Indian stars may have deterred a few, but not many. Khadijah Shah’s Elan featured Nargis Fakhri for a year and Crescent lawn has long spotlighted Kareena and Karisma Kapoor in embellished, three-piece glory. When a brand is pandering not just to Pakistan but also to other countries, it can’t take limited cantonment rules into consideration. Taking on an Indian face makes budgetary sense.

Nargis Fakhri in Elan Lawn Collection (L) and Karishma Kapoor in Crescent Lawn Collection.

Currently, among others, the enterprising Mr and Mrs Pataudi (Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor), Parineeti Chopra and Shilpa Shetty, successfully star in shampoo ads within Pakistan as well as across the border.

Kareena Kapoor happily tempts both Pakistan and India with a Magnum bar and Katrina Kaif is here, there and everywhere guiding you towards everything, from juice to soap to hair removal cream!

Kareena Kapoor in Magnum ad. – Photo courtesy: Bollyspice.com

One almost feels sorry for the extra budget that CLEAR shampoo must have had to set aside for Pakistan. Their Indian ad stars Virat Kohli and come what may, an Indian cricketer can never appease the Pakistani populace.

The brand’s ad for Pakistan has ended up featuring Bollywood starlet Ileana D’Cruz opposite our hunky Fawad Khan.

Brand manager at Veet, Masooma Hasan, points out that sometimes taking on an Indian actor is the only choice a marketing team has. Veet has, of course, long featured Katrina Kaif in their ads and Hasan observes that the actor perfectly emulates what the brand stands for.

“We want consumers to consider Veet to be a beauty brand rather than a hygiene product. Katrina projects a beauty that any woman would aspire to achieve. She’s a popular Bollywood icon, has a gorgeous face and a stunning body," said Hasan. "To our mind, there’s no other actor in Pakistan at the moment that fits the bill as well.”

Katrina Kaif in Veet ad (L) and Slice ad.

Unilever, a stalwart at featuring celebrities in myriad ad campaigns, explains that the choice of brand ambassadors depends on their popularity in the local market rather than their geographical associations.

“Not just Indian stars are famous in Pakistan,” says Raheel Pasha Khan, Marketing Director at Unilever Personal Care. “For instance, Shaan and Iman Ali have never worked in India, but are very popular locally.”

Shaan and Iman Ali, however, represent a very small minority. Until more bona fide stars enter the field in Pakistan, India is what truly sells here and marketing experts are hardly going to listen to a few nitpicky critics when faced with mounting sales.

And so what? Good advertising inevitably generates more revenue for the economy and the encroachment of Bollywood may as well induce our own celebrities to become better-groomed.

Realistically, how many of you would even want to buy something promoted to us by a Mathira or a Veena Malik? Not many, not yet.

Maliha Rehman is a fashion and lifestyle journalist with a penchant for writing, all the time! Log on to Twitter for more updates @maliharehman