Yoga guru turned company boss

Baba Ramdev is arguably India`s most famous yoga guru, well known for his TV exercise shows. But now he`s using his brand to sell everything from shampoo to cereal, and detergent to instant noodles, BBC reports.

Patanjali, the company he founded, claims to have had sales of more than $300m (£200m) in the past year, and is one of India`s fastest-growing consumer goods firms.

Dressed in saffron robes, long hair tied up in a loose knot, flowing beard, wooden slippers and a cloth bag slung over his shoulder, Baba Ramdev looks every bit like a traditional yoga guru.

For more than a decade he`s demonstrated exercises in front of massive crowds, instructing them on how to breathe in and then exhale, impressing them with his knowledge of ancient yogic asanas (poses).

But as he shows me around his factory in the northern Indian city of Haridwar, he seems equally familiar with modern business and marketing concepts.

He`s surrounded by a large group of armed guards and plain-clothes policemen who make up his security cover. Some workers rush to touch his feet, considered a sign of respect in India.

Baba Ramdev and his aide Acharya Balkrishna set up Patanjali about 10 years ago.

`In India, food, cosmetics and medicines are mostly made and sold by foreign multinational companies that take the country`s money abroad,` Baba Ramdev says.

`They invest less money, but their profits are huge, which they take overseas. We want that India`s money should stay here.`

Brand building
Made in India - or as the labels on his products read, Made in Bharat, using the Hindi language name for the country - is what Baba Ramdev hopes to be the biggest selling point for his company.

The products are also made with traditionally Indian ingredients, he claims. And while the best-selling item - ghee or clarified butter, made from cow`s milk - is Indian, Patanjali makes a wide range of products, including a foreign dish, muesli.

At one of its shops in Mumbai, customers are happy to talk about why they buy the products.

`I`m buying a hair oil for my husband, because he`s losing hair and wants a natural way to stop it,` Shikha Jethwani says.

`I, as well as my in-laws and my parents, do really believe these products are genuinely herbal and have no side effects,` she adds.

Nazir Ahmed has been using Patanjali`s toothpaste for a year now. `Baba Ramdev has such a big name, so I think the products must be pure and not adulterated. I have full trust in them,` he says.

`Brand Baba Ramdev has been in the making for a while now,` says Dheeraj Sinha, author of India Reloaded, a book that offers insights into the Indian consumer market.

`Through yoga, political platforms and associated movements, it`s been carefully crafted over the past 10 years. What he`s done, cleverly, is selling consumption on the back of spiritualism.`