For De Beers, India’s natural diamond story is no longer confined to bridal counters and occasion-led purchases. It is being reframed through cricket, everyday wear, younger consumers and a retail expansion push that aims to make natural diamonds more visible across the country.
Toranj Mehta, Vice President, De Beers Forevermark India, said the company’s latest association with cricketers Suryakumar Yadav and Abhishek Sharma is rooted as much in cultural relevance as in brand storytelling. “We know that there are two passions in India. One is jewellery, the second is cricket,” she said, explaining why De Beers chose a route not traditionally associated with diamond marketing.
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While Abhishek Sharma was seen as a natural fit because of his style and comfort with diamonds, Suryakumar Yadav brought a deeper narrative. Mehta drew a parallel between the cricketer’s journey and the making of a natural diamond. “A natural diamond is so timeless, it is 3.5 billion years old. We wanted to highlight the kind of struggle a diamond goes through to actually come to shine and come to brilliance,” she said.
The brand’s continuing partnership with JioHotstar’s cricket properties is also driven by scale. After working with IPL programming last year by accessorising female anchors, De Beers saw a sharp uplift in brand and category awareness. Mehta said the platform offered wider reach than many traditional women-centric entertainment properties, with growing female viewership making cricket an increasingly relevant space for the category.
On the debate around lab-grown diamonds, Mehta was unequivocal: De Beers sees natural and synthetic diamonds as two fundamentally different propositions. She positioned natural diamonds as finite, rare and emotionally resonant, in contrast to factory-made stones with limitless supply. According to her, lab-grown diamond values have dropped nearly 90% over the past three years, while natural diamonds have held value and grown steadily. She added that India’s natural diamond market grew 12% between 2024 and 2025, with the same CAGR over the last five years, and could become a nearly $30 billion market by 2030.
Mehta also pointed to a behavioural shift in the category. Everyday diamond purchases are rising, fuelled by women’s financial independence and emotional affinity with the category. De Beers’ internal studies, she said, show that 64% of diamond purchases are now self-purchases rather than gifts. Gen Z, too, is already a meaningful buyer base, accounting for 51% of purchases in 2024.
To widen access to the category, De Beers is also backing Project INDRA—the Indian Natural Diamond Retailer Alliance—in partnership with GJEPC. The initiative aims to bring more jewellers into the natural diamond business through training, marketing support and AI-led creative tools. With only around 50,000 of India’s 5 lakh jewellers currently retailing diamond jewellery, Mehta said the goal is simple: increase physical availability, strengthen retailer capability and make natural diamonds more accessible to the next wave of Indian consumers.
