If you are an 80s & 90s kid, you know this tune that never left us. Chances are you can still hum the jingle without a second thought, even if the product doesn’t sit on your shelf. It wasn’t just an advertisement of a detergent powder, but a slice of growing up in India. What few knew back then was that behind the cheerful chorus lay a story that began not in a marketing office, but in a modest 10×10 room. And at its heart was a grieving father, determined to keep his daughter’s memory alive. With an investment of a meagre ₹700, delivering packets door-to-door on his bicycle, the humble man made an empire of ₹17,000 Crore and captured 60 percent of the market share.
Early Life of a Dreamer
Born in 1945 in Ruppur, Gujarat, Karsanbhai Patel came from a farming family with modest means but big hopes. Education was the ticket to a better life, and Patel completed his BSc in Chemistry by the age of 21. His father believed that this degree would lift the family out of poverty. So, he took up work — first as a laboratory assistant, then at the quarter mills of the Lalbhai group.Karsanbhai, however, secretly harbored dreams of business.
When Detergent was a Luxury
The late 1960s were hard years in India. A financial crunch meant families thought twice before buying even daily essentials. Detergent was considered a luxury. Premium brands from multinationals cost ₹13–15 per kilogram — far beyond the reach of the average middle-class home.Patel spotted the gap. Why should cleanliness be a luxury? Why couldn’t detergent be affordable and still effective? With his background in chemistry, he began experimenting at home after long hours at work.
A Tragedy Turns into a Father’s Tribute
This period also brought the darkest moment of his life: the loss of his daughter, Nirupama, in a road accident. Her sudden death left the family shattered. For most, such loss would crush the will to go on. But Karsanbhai chose another path. He decided his daughter’s name would live forever. What began as grief soon turned into a mission.
With just ₹700 and endless determination, he began producing the detergent powder he priced at ₹3, with something unheard of, a money-back guarantee.And thus, was born Nirma and its promise of doodh si safedi.
The Detergent Powder That Changed the Market
Karsanbhai took it to retailers, who didn’t take him seriously. But he had no intention of giving up.
Each morning, before heading to office, he loaded packets onto his bicycle and rode through Ahmedabad, selling them door to door. In the evenings, he returned to make more.
Soon, word spread. Families discovered that this humble white packet worked as well as the premium brands, if not better. The white frock of his daughter had become the symbol of millions of freshly washed clothes across Gujarat.
When a Jingle Became a Revolution
Patel juggled his full-time job with his business. He had built trust, but now he needed the reach. That’s when he turned to television. In 1975, a jingle debuted on Doordarshan:
“Washing powder Nirma… sabki pasand Nirma.”
It was simple, repetitive, and impossible to forget. From kids in playgrounds to grandmothers at home, everyone knew the tune. In 1982, another ad featuring “Hema, Rekha, Jaya aur Sushma” turned the product into pop culture.
Advertising had never been so powerful in India. And this one line changed everything. Nirma wasn’t just a detergent anymore. It was a movement.
With the growing demand and business, Karsanbhai quit his job to focus on Nirma full-time.
Dethroning Multinational Giants
By the late 1980s, Nirma had dethroned multinational giants and had become a brand with over 60% market share. Names like Unilever and Procter & Gamble that once seemed untouchable were now scrambling to keep up.
The rise wasn’t limited to detergent powder. Nirma expanded into soap cakes, beauty soaps, and eventually personal care. Ads featuring Sonali Bendre in the 1990s kept the brand visible in living rooms across India.
At its peak, Nirma wasn’t just a product on shelves. It was a symbol of middle-class India — affordable, reliable, and proudly homegrown.
The Decline No One Saw Coming
But success can make giants stumble. As the Indian market opened in the 1990s, new players entered. Ariel, Tide, and Surf Excel launched advanced formulas with enzymes and premium cleaning agents.
Nirma, still relying on its original formula, began to feel outdated. Urban households started shifting to competitors.
Then came a fateful advertising shift. For decades, Nirma had spoken directly to homemakers. But in the 2000s, the brand roped in Hrithik Roshan and tried to modernise its image with ads showing men doing laundry. The core audience, housewives, felt ignored. Meanwhile, Surf Excel doubled down with its emotionally resonant “Daag Achhe Hain” campaign, which won hearts everywhere.
From holding 60% of the market, Nirma’s share fell to 6% by the 2010s. The empire built on a father’s tribute began to fade from the mainstream.
Reinvention Beyond Detergent
Yet, Karsanbhai never stopped building.
The Nirma Group entered the cement business in 2014 under the newly formed Nuvoco Vistas Corporation. In 2016, it expanded significantly by acquiring Lafarge India’s cement assets in a $1.4 billion deal.
In February 2020, Nirma acquired Emami Cement for ₹5,500 crore (US$742 million).
It has also made strategic moves in healthcare. In September 2023, it acquired a 75% stake in Glenmark Life Sciences for ₹5,652 crore. The company was later rebranded as Alivus Life Sciences in 2024.
Karsanbhai Patel’s journey has been celebrated with the Udyog Ratna Award, the Padma Shri, and multiple lifetime achievement honors. Forbes once listed him among India’s richest.
The Road Ahead
Today, Nirma is one of the world’s largest producers of soda ash. While the detergent may no longer dominate Indian households, the group continues to work towards remaining a powerhouse across industries.
Beyond market share and business lessons, the story endures because it began with love. A father’s tribute turned into a revolution that redefined how India washed its clothes.
For an entire generation, Nirma is not just a detergent. It’s childhood memories, TV jingles, and bright white clothes drying under the sun!
Yash Vora is a financial writer with the Informed InvestoRR team at Equentis. He has followed the stock markets right from his early college days. So, Yash has a keen eye for the big market movers. His clear and crisp writeups offer sharp insights on market moving stocks, fund flows, economic data and IPOs. When not looking at stocks, Yash loves a game of table tennis or chess.
