Why India’s most underrated businesses deserve their Baahubali moment

Over the last decade at Curry Nation, we’ve had the privilege of partnering with multiple owner-managed businesses across India – from edible oils to electricals, textiles to tiles, lubricants to laddoos.

Although the categories differ, they all share a common underlying story.

These are founders who built Rs 100–300 crore enterprises from sheer grit, starting with a single product, a single godown, and a single dream. They’ve fought price wars, dealt with distributor dependencies, and navigated complex markets without ever losing heart.

And yet, meeting after meeting, one line keeps surfacing – almost like a collective sigh from this segment of Indian enterprise: “Our product sells, but our brand doesn’t.” That one sentence became the spark for my book – FromCommodity to Brand.

Because after years of working with these businesses, we realised that India’s real growth engine – its owner-managed companies – is not held back by capability. It’s held back by 'mindset'.

This is due to the belief that branding is an indulgence rather than an investment.

This book is a culmination of those experiences – the conversations, the turnarounds, and the aha moments that showed us just how powerful the shift from 'product-thinking' to 'brand-thinking' can be.

Why I wrote this book

For over three decades, I’ve seen Indian advertising from the inside – from the days when Fevicol became a metaphor for unbreakable bonds to when Amul turned category communication into pop culture.

But what fascinated me more was what was happening outside the metros – in India’s real markets.

There were hundreds of businesses doing everything right operationally but still stuck in anonymity. They had distribution muscle, manufacturing scale, and loyal trade partners – yet their products remained interchangeable, easily replaced, and rarely remembered.

That invisibility is expensive.

It costs them margin, valuation, and eventually, legacy.

From Commodity to Brand was written to help such businesses break free from that trap. It’s not an agency casebook. It’s a playbook for transformation, drawn from real Indian businesses that moved from being invisible to invincible.

The Curry Nation philosophy: From invisible to invincible

Curry Nation’s philosophy is simple: every product can become a brand.

But to do that, it needs what we call the Challenger Mindset – the courage to defy category conventions, to stand for something bigger than product features, and to build a narrative that competitors can’t copy.

Our proprietary UNLIMIT Model helps businesses do exactly that – unlimit their potential by transforming their brand’s identity, positioning, packaging, communication, and distribution story.

We call this journey C2B: Commodity to Brand. Because when a brand owns its story, it stops fighting on price and starts commanding preference.

What the book reveals

The book distils this transformation into five practical steps – each illustrated with Indian case studies that any entrepreneur can relate to:

1. Packaging that sells before your sales team does
   How design can be your silent salesman – shaping perception before a word is spoken.

2. Positioning – from price fighter to market leader
   Why Tata Salt became Desh Ka Namak and turned emotion into market share.

3. Making customers ask for you by name
   The psychology behind Bisleri’s dominance – and how recall creates a pull that no trade scheme can.

4. Storytelling that builds an unshakeable identity
   Lessons from Fevicol and Amul on why stories stick when logic doesn’t.

5. Owning your distribution, not just selling through it
   How to create a demand-pull strategy so retailers start pushing you.

But more importantly, Commodity to Brand™ uncovers the mindsets that quietly hold these businesses back:

• “Branding is for big companies.”

• “Our product quality will speak for itself.”

• “We can’t afford to do brand work right now.”

• “This category is too boring for advertising.”

These are the myths that keep good businesses stuck in the commodity cycle. The book challenges each one, showing how every great brand once began as a commodity but chose to think differently.

The impact we want to create

Curry Nation’s mission is to make branding accessible, actionable, and outcome-driven for India’s owner-managed businesses.

Our goal is to help at least 500 Indian commodity businesses transition into powerful brands by 2026 – businesses that not only grow revenue but also build valuation, legacy, and pride.

Because when a founder moves from selling more to being remembered more, everything changes – margins, morale, even how the next generation looks at the business.

Why this book Is relevant now more than ever

This isn’t a book for people chasing awards or ad jargon. It’s for entrepreneurs who wake up every morning hungry for growth – who know they’ve built something strong but feel the world hasn’t noticed yet.

If you’ve scaled production but not perception, or if your distributors know your numbers better than your consumers know your name – this book will give you a fresh lens.

It will help you see that branding isn’t a luxury. It’s leverage.
That visibility isn’t vanity. It’s value creation.
And that in the long run, a brand is the only moat that money can’t buy.

A final word

Every category in India needs its 'Baahubali' – a brand that breaks free from the crowd and becomes a symbol of pride for the industry it represents.

At Curry Nation, that’s what we do.
We help businesses write that epic.

From Commodity to Brand is just the first chapter.

(Nagessh Pannaswami is a branding expert, founder of Curry Nation, and author of 'From Commodity to Brand'. He helps transform commodity businesses into memorable brands.)