United Biscuits wants to give a bigger thrust to its McVitie's brand in India, and recently roped in actors Bipasha Basu and Shriya Saran to promote the range.

The company is doing what competitor Parle Products had done in the past: banking on regional celebrities to push the brand in key markets, reported Business Standard.

Early this year, Parle Products had engaged Bhojpuri actor Ravi Kishan and Bengali actor Rituparna Sengupta to connect with consumers at a local level.

"We have identified three key metros in the south - Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai - as high potential markets and engaging south Indian actor Shriya Saran will help us reach out to consumers more closely," said Jayant Kapre, president, United Biscuits. The south, believes Kapre, has latched onto the health trend much faster than other regions and will be an important market for its digestive variant.

A recent entrant in India, United Biscuits is a marginal presence in the Rs 11,000-crore biscuits market. The market is already crowded and dominated by Britannia Industries, Parle Products and ITC which have an array of offerings across segments. More recently, Kraft entered the market with Oreo and will leverage Cadbury's extensive distribution network to build its presence.

United Biscuits, whose digestive biscuits are a big draw globally, is hoping for similar success in India. "We want to build this category here which is a measly Rs 100 crore," says Kapre. Britannia, with its Nutrichoice brand, and Mrs Bector's Cremica Digestive biscuits will be its competitors in this segment. The glucose segment dominates the biscuit market in India with a 50 per cent share, followed by cookies (20 per cent), cream and marie (20 per cent and 10 per cent share).