In the middle of her pitch to get me to switch to Vodafone Idea (Vi) as a postpaid subscriber, a sales representative in West Delhi paused. And changed tack. 

“Did you know that even SRK has joined us now?” she asked, flashing the Shah Rukh Khan trump card she’d been carrying the whole time. After spending years fronting campaigns for Vi’s two biggest rivals, the Bollywood superstar had finally crossed over to Vi’s side. And that, the sales representative believed, had to count for something.

This isn’t all that’s new at the telecom operator. After years of hemorrhaging subscribers, Vi........

© The Ken