Candere, the lifestyle jewellery brand from the House of Kalyan Jewellers, has named Indian cricketer Smriti Mandhana as its new brand ambassador, slotting her alongside Shah Rukh Khan as the face of the brand. The June 28, 2026 announcement pairs the country’s most-followed women’s cricket star with one of its most bankable film stars, a structure designed to push the brand deeper into the everyday-wear segment.
The Mandhana move is the latest expression of a positioning Candere has been building: selling jewellery as an everyday accessory rather than a purchase saved for weddings, festivals and milestones. With this signing, the brand now has two of India’s most widely recognised public figures doing that job in parallel. The dual-face structure gives the brand more reach than a single-ambassador model would, and the timing fits the brand’s 130-store Indian footprint.
Two Faces, One Lifestyle Pitch
Candere revealed the appointment on June 28, 2026, framing Mandhana’s arrival as a generational addition rather than a replacement for Khan. The release positions both as core faces, with each anchoring a different audience slice. Ramesh Kalyanaraman, Director, Candere, made the strategic logic explicit in the brand’s official statement. The dual-face setup is unusual for an Indian jewellery brand, where ambassador signings have typically been solo campaigns or paired only inside single-category pushes.
“Together, they reflect the diversity of today’s India and the many ways consumers express themselves,” Kalyanaraman said in the statement. The release frames Mandhana and Khan as equally central to the brand’s identity, rather than as a marquee face plus a supporting one. Both are positioned in the same release as core faces for the same positioning push, and the wording is a deliberate signal that the new face does not displace the existing one.
Smriti Mandhana’s influence extends far beyond the cricket field. She represents a generation that values ambition, authenticity and confidence, and has become an inspiration to millions through her achievements and conduct.
Ramesh Kalyanaraman, Director, Candere, made the statement in the brand’s official release of the partnership. The release is on Impact magazine’s website.
Why Mandhana, Why Now
The cricket pitch is not where most Indian jewellery brands have looked for a face. Mandhana’s value as an ambassador has tracked women’s cricket’s growing hold on the country’s attention, particularly after India’s 2025 Women’s World Cup win. The post-tournament endorsement rush around the women’s team turned players like Mandhana into one of the hottest commercial properties in Indian sport, with how Indian women cricketers turned marketing gold after the World Cup mapping the broader commercial shift.
For Candere, the audience is the target. The brand’s release frames the partnership as a move toward consumers who view jewellery “as an everyday lifestyle choice rather than something reserved for special occasions.” Mandhana’s reach into that consumer slice, younger, female-leaning and sport-adjacent, is what the brand is paying for. The fit is unusually direct for a category where most celebrity signings still tilt toward bridal and occasion-led campaigns.
The Everyday-Jewellery Bet
Candere’s positioning as a lifestyle brand is the thread that ties the dual-ambassador strategy together. The release states the partnership “comes as the brand continues to position jewellery as an everyday lifestyle choice rather than something reserved for special occasions,” and Kalyanaraman’s statement anchors the move in the same language: “As Candere continues to grow as a lifestyle jewellery brand, Smriti’s association will help us deepen our connect with audiences across the country.”
The category play tracks a wider shift inside Kalyan Jewellers, and the parent company has been pushing 18-karat lightweight, lifestyle-focused diamond jewellery aimed at younger buyers. In a separate 2026 expansion interview, Kalyanaraman described 2025 as a year when the format “saw strong demand, particularly among younger customers,” a generation he said “views jewellery as an expression of ‘radical autonomy.'” That framing matches the brief Mandhana is now being signed to deliver.
Candere wants to be the brand a younger Indian reaches for when buying a piece for themselves, not the one they walk into for a wedding trousseau. The dual-ambassador move is the marketing expression of that category bet, and the parent group’s 18-karat push has already done some of the groundwork the new ambassador now has to amplify.
The push mirrors what Kalyan Jewellers is doing with its own brand, where a different celebrity face runs the campaign for the bridal-heavy Huescape collection. In the same expansion interview, Kalyanaraman noted that Kalyan Jewellers’ brand ambassador Janhvi Kapoor stars in the campaign imagery for the Huescape collection. Candere, as the lifestyle sub-brand inside the Kalyan group, has now built a parallel face roster in Mandhana and Khan.
130 Stores and Counting
The ambassador announcement lands on top of an accelerating physical footprint, and the brand has been adding stores at a steady pace through the year. Candere currently operates more than 130 retail stores across India, alongside a growing omnichannel presence that spans online direct sales and marketplace listings. Inside the wider Kalyan group, the pace has been faster: at the start of FY26, the combined Kalyan and Candere network stood at 388 showrooms globally. The group added about 46 new showrooms across both formats in the nine months that followed.
- 130+ Candere retail stores across India
- 388 combined Kalyan and Candere showrooms globally at FY26 start
- about 46 new showrooms added in nine months across both formats
- 80 new Candere outlets planned in India for FY26
The 80-outlet Candere plan sits inside a wider Kalyan expansion that targets India, the Middle East, the US and the UK. That footprint gives the dual-ambassador strategy multiple surfaces to land on, from flagship retail stores to digital-first browsing, and lets the brand run the same face-led campaigns against different store formats at the same time.
What the Pairing Buys
The arithmetic of the partnership is audience complementarity. Khan, a film star with three decades of cross-demographic reach, anchors the brand for older buyers and for the mass market. Mandhana, the vice-captain of India’s women’s cricket team, is the natural face for the younger, sport-oriented consumer the everyday-jewellery pitch is aimed at, and the brand has put the two on the same plane in its release rather than tiering them.
Mandhana’s own framing of the fit is built around daily wear rather than ceremonial gifting. “Candere’s contemporary designs fit effortlessly into that mindset,” Mandhana said in the release, “making jewellery relevant for everyday moments.” The framing treats jewellery as personal style, the kind of accessory a buyer picks for themselves rather than as a gift from a family member. The release leans on that framing repeatedly.
For me, jewellery isn’t something that’s reserved for special occasions; it’s something I wear every day. It’s a part of my personal style and often the finishing touch that makes me feel like myself.
Smriti Mandhana, Indian cricketer, said the line in the brand release announcing her Candere ambassadorship. The full release is on Impact magazine’s website.
That self-presentation, daily and personal, is the one Candere’s lifestyle positioning needs to make credible. The brand’s marketing team now has to run both faces in upcoming campaigns without splitting the consumer message, a sequencing challenge the rollout will need to solve. The first campaigns of the pairing will show whether the two reads reinforce each other.
Headwinds the Strategy Has to Absorb
The bet does not come without risk. Gold prices have stayed elevated through 2025 and into 2026, which historically pushes Indian jewellery buyers toward heavier, occasion-led purchases and away from the lighter, lifestyle-led category Candere is chasing. Kalyanaraman has acknowledged the pressure himself, calling 2025 a year of relentless gold rally and shifting consumer sentiments. His public comments on the year describe operational agility and customer-centricity as the dominant learnings, a signal that the category is harder than it looks. The release frames gold prices as the dominant external pressure on the strategy.
There is also the simpler question of whether a dual-ambassador model dilutes either face, and Candere’s release treats Khan and Mandhana as co-equal with no tiering. The first test will be how the brand sequences the two faces across its 130-plus stores, digital channels and television in the months ahead. The release does not detail how the brand will run simultaneous face campaigns, leaving the rollout strategy open.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Candere’s new brand ambassador?
Indian cricketer Smriti Mandhana was named Candere’s brand ambassador on June 28, 2026. She joins Shah Rukh Khan on the brand’s roster, becoming the first cricketer on the brand’s face list.
Is Shah Rukh Khan still a Candere ambassador?
Yes. The June 28, 2026 announcement places Mandhana alongside Khan rather than replacing him, with both named as core faces in the brand’s official statement. The wording is a deliberate signal that the new face does not displace the existing one. The release’s parallel phrasing makes both equally central to the brand’s positioning.
How many Candere stores are there in India?
Candere operates more than 130 retail stores in India. The wider Kalyan group, which includes Candere, runs 388 showrooms globally and has planned 80 new Candere outlets for the year.
What does “everyday lifestyle jewellery” mean for Candere?
It means positioning jewellery as an everyday personal accessory rather than a purchase reserved for weddings and festivals. Kalyan Jewellers has paired this with 18-karat lightweight designs aimed at younger buyers. The framing treats jewellery as personal style, the kind of accessory a buyer picks for themselves.
Why was Smriti Mandhana chosen?
Candere cited Mandhana’s reach among younger consumers and the rising visibility of women’s cricket after India’s 2025 World Cup win. The brand frames her as a fit for the everyday-wear positioning it has been building.
