Oil’s well that ends well: Akshay Kumar champions health

MUMBAI: It’s the greeting that oils the wheels of Indian conversation: “Kaise ho? Sab theek?” Before you can say “cup of chai”, someone’s checking if you’ve eaten, how your mother is doing, and whether that nagging cough has cleared up. Health isn’t just small talk in India, it’s the entire conversation starter pack.

Fortune Refined Soybean Oil has bottled this cultural truth in its latest campaign, with Akshay Kumar playing the concerned friend who cares about your wellbeing before getting down to business. The film captures what anyone who’s visited an Indian household knows, you’re getting a health check-up whether you asked for one or not.

“In India, asking about someone’s health is not a formality, it’s a language of love,” explains AWL Agri Business Ltd. joint president of sales and marketing Mukesh Mishra. The company wants Fortune positioned not just as cooking oil, but as “a silent caretaker in every home.”

The campaign’s tagline cuts through the clutter, “Jab Sehat Badhiya, Toh Sab Badhiya” (When health’s great, everything’s great). It’s difficult to argue with that logic, particularly when the message comes wrapped in the kind of everyday scenarios that feel like watching your own family’s WhatsApp status updates.

Ogilvy South chief creative officer Puneet Kapoor, says the team aimed to reflect “one of the purest forms of care” without getting preachy. They’ve succeeded in creating something that feels less like an advert and more like a gentle nudge from a favourite aunt.

Fortune’s pitch rests on its Nutri 5 formula, which promises five health benefits: better eyesight, stronger bones, healthy cholesterol levels, antioxidants, and improved immunity. Whether these claims hold up in your kitchen is between you and your doctor, but the brand certainly knows how to speak the language of health-conscious Indian families.

As India’s number one refined soybean oil brand, Fortune reaches one in three Indian households, roughly 123 million families. That’s a lot of kitchens, and a lot of conversations starting with “Kaise ho?”

The new campaign arrives at a time when Indians are increasingly mindful about what goes into their meals. Fortune is banking on the idea that health begins where most family decisions are made: around the kitchen table, with someone asking if you’ve been eating properly.

And really, isn’t that just the most Indian thing ever?