Rohit Sharma has signed on as the first brand ambassador for Freyr Energy, fronting a new campaign called “Solar Ho, Toh Freyr Ho!” that launched on September 30. It’s a notable pairing: India’s cricket captain lending his face to rooftop solar, a category that has so far sold itself almost entirely on subsidy math and payback-period spreadsheets rather than mainstream celebrity endorsement.
Freyr Energy, co-founded by Saurabh Marda and Radhika Choudary, has installed more than 20,000 residential and commercial solar systems across over 40 Indian cities, handling everything from system design and financing to installation and after-sales servicing. Under the PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana scheme, households can claim subsidies of up to ₹78,000 toward the switch — a figure the company’s new campaign leans on heavily, alongside messaging around the roughly 30-year operating lifespan of a rooftop system. Marketing head Rajan Mahalingam is steering the creative push, which will run as a series of films and ads built around Sharma rather than a single launch spot.
Signing a cricketer of Sharma’s stature is a deliberate category move as much as a brand one: rooftop solar in India has struggled with an awareness problem more than a product problem, with most households either unaware of subsidy eligibility or skeptical of long-sales-cycle installers. A trusted, instantly recognisable face does something a financing calculator can’t — it compresses the trust-building period that typically slows down a homeowner’s decision to commit tens of thousands of rupees to a rooftop installation they won’t fully understand technically.
What matters beyond the celebrity wattage is the sequencing: Freyr is making this bet after already building the installed base and servicing infrastructure to back it up, rather than using a star signing to paper over an unproven operation. For India’s residential solar sector, which remains underpenetrated relative to both government ambition and climate urgency, a mainstream athlete campaign could do more to shift household behaviour than another subsidy tweak — particularly heading into a festive season when big-ticket home purchases typically spike. Freyr is betting Sharma’s reach converts browsers into installers faster than any brochure has managed so far.
Source: Based on reporting by afaqs!, with additional editorial adaptation and analysis.
