Assurance duel: Asian Paints vs Birla Opus

For a challenger, there is no sweeter victory than forcing the king to flinch. Birla Opus, the Aditya Birla Group paints brand, tasted that pleasure when Asian Paints, the industry’s Goliath, splashed a front-page ad in The Times of India boasting of its long warranty. The trigger? Birla Opus’s cheeky promise: if our paint fades within a year, we’ll repaint your walls at no cost.

Asian Paints still wears the crown in India’s Rs 70,000 crore paints market but the shine has dulled. A Reuters report citing exclusive Elara Capital data says its share slipped to 52% in the 12 months ending March 3,1 2025 from 59% a year earlier.

This duel traces back to an August print ad in the same newspaper. The year-old Birla Opus mocked the lofty promises of paint majors as leaps of faith rather than guarantees, then staked its own assurance. The claim was reinforced on television with various actors and brand ambassadors Vicky Kaushal and Rashmika Mandana lending their star power.

In India, incumbents rarely stoop to answer provocations. Asian Paints did. The ruler of the paints industry chose to speak of warranty rather than assurance, a nod to the way the Indian psyche equates trust with hard guarantees. A glance at its warranty cards shows the period ranging from two to 15 years depending on the brand. 

Yet in answering a challenger – and a young one at that – Asian Paints only burnished Birla Opus’ street cred. It is hard to imagine the market leader reacting so visibly to Nerolac or Berger. Then again, neither rival has put Rs 10,000 crore behind its arsenal.

What stood out in Birla Opus’s ads was not just the customer as final decision-maker but also the spotlight on the true influencers of the paints trade: dealers, contractors and architects.

In the end, the duel was less about who threw the sharper blow and more about how the market perceived the exchange. Both king and challenger reminded the industry that in paints, as in perception, trust is the real prize.