Deepika Padukone Instagram – MUMBAI — When Louis Vuitton celebrity ambassadors Jennifer Connelly, Léa Seydoux and Alicia Vikander appeared at the Cannes Film Festival in May, one of the year’s most important marketing moments for global luxury brands, hundreds of photographers captured their every move — and outfit. But the brand’s biggest red carpet bang in Cannes came from its first global ambassador from India, Deepika Padukone. The Bollywood star accounted for seven of Vuitton’s top ten Instagram posts and more than 25 percent of the $20.2 million in media impact value (MIV) generated for the brand during the 12-day festival, according to data analytics and marketing agency Launchmetrics. A single Instagram post featuring Padukone on the third day of the festival in a floor-sweeping red Louis Vuitton gown garnered more than two million likes and generated more than $1 million in MIV for the brand. Though she remains relatively unknown in the West, Padukone is the most popular actress in India’s wildly popular Hindi film industry, ranking at the top of an India Today poll for the seventh year in a row. Across the wider South Asia region — stretching from Afghanistan and Pakistan to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka — and among the Indian diaspora of 25 to 30 million people living in the US, Canada, UK and Australia, and in the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia, Padukone is a household name and an instantly recognisable face. Together, the global South Asian community represents roughly two billion people — about 25 percent of the global population. In the last 18 months, Padukone has cemented her status as India’s most powerful global fashion ambassador in a flurry of brand endorsement deals. First there was Levi’s Strauss and Adidas, then Louis Vuitton, and now, Cartier in rapid succession. Deepika Padukone has been a member of the #BoF500 since 2019. Read the cover story by @imranamed [Link in bio] Photographer: @ashishisshah Fashion Director: @nikhilmansata Makeup Artist: @deepa.verma.makeup Hair Stylist: @yiannitsapatori Fashion Stylist: @zohacastelino