In India, the sight of Bollywood stars on posters or television promoting the biggest brands is an everyday occurrence. But despite their popularity now across the globe, it seems their brand appeal has yet to take off.

"We have a lot of brands tying up with the films and actors in India, but that is not so much the case in the UK where the brand market is still very undeveloped when it comes to Bollywood," says Studio 18's Tanuj Garg. "The reason for that is there is not sufficient understanding or access to the Asian market and psyche and the Bollywood cinema generally in the UK with mainstream brands."

Nevertheless, steps are being made to improve the situation. UTV Motion Pictures joined forces last year with Citibank on Don, starring Shahrukh Khan. "The reason they worked with us is because Citibank has an NRI (Non Resident Indian) banking division and wanted to promote its latest product, the Rupee Checking Account, to that lucrative segment and felt that a tie-in with a major Bollywood film was the best way to do that," says Garg, who helped promote the film last year when working for UTV.

UTV also worked with Western Union to promote Taxi No 9211, which was released in February this year. The bank ran a series of contests on Asian broadcasters Sunrise Radio and Radio XL, the winners of which got to meet the film's star John Abraham.

"A lot of banks with NRI banking divisions are keen to tie up on promotion," adds Garg.

Yash Raj's Avtar Panesar believes the situation could improve further if Channel 4, for example, were to show Bollywood films at prime time (in the UK): "I see no reason why it wouldn't generate interest from mainstream brands."