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[nahia]

NEW DELHI: Pepsico’s soft drink brand Mountain Dew has signed Salman Khan for an annual fee estimated at Rs 5 crore, placing the Dabangg superstar at par with cricketer Sachin Tendulkar.

Riding high on the success of his film Dabangg, one of the biggest hits of this year, Salman becomes Mountain Dew’s first brand ambassador. So far, the lemon-based drink had opted for high-energy commercials featuring high-octane stunts.

The deal places Salman ahead of other film stars such as Hrithik Roshan and Saif Ali Khan , said two executives from the celebrity management space. “This is the first time a brand ambassador has been signed for Mountain Dew in India,” a PepsiCo spokesman said. He declined to comment on the deal size.

When contacted, Matrix India Entertainment Consultants founder director Vivek Kamath did not comment on the development. The agency manages Salman’s endorsements. PepsiCo has positioned Mountain Dew as a macho drink with the tagline,‘darr ke aage jeet hai’.

The company spokesman said Salman identifies with the philosophy of the brand and has a strong national appeal. The beverage maker has chosen the 45-year-old Salman Khan when its flagship brand Pepsi promotes itself as a youth-centric brand in line with its ‘youngistan’ theme.

In fact, brand Pepsi dropped actor Shah Rukh Khan and cricketer Sachin Tendulkar in the last two years, justifying that the two stars did not fit in with the brand’s ‘young’ image.

This year, Salman has been a sort of saviour to Bollywood. While some of the most hyped films like Hrithik Roshan’s Guzarish and Abhishek Bachchan’s Raavan flopped, Shah Rukh Khan’s My Name is Khan was an average grosser. In fact, even before Dabangg became the hit that it has, general entertainment channel Colors had roped in Salman as host of its popular show Bigg Boss’ fourth season.

The actor is reportedly being paid Rs 3-3.5 crore per episode, though this could not be confirmed. Dabangg is said to be the highest grosser for 2010, beating Aamir Khan’s 3 Idiots in the domestic box office sweepstakes