A gold and jewellery chain in South India has dropped tennis star Sania Mirza from its advertising because she refused to wear traditional women's attire.

Mirza insisted on wearing tennis shorts and T-shirts when the TV commercials were being made.

Malabar Gold, a Kerala jewellery merchant that plans to expand across India and abroad, had hired Mirza along with Malayalam movie star Mohanlal to promote the company. The pair have appeared in a number of commercials over the past two years.

"We have decided to drop Sania Mirza from our commercials because she refused to appear in any other dress other than tennis shorts and T-shirts," said Malabar Gold Chairman MP Ahmed.

"Her public relations consultant advised her not to appear in conventional dress such as salwar kameez, because it would reduce her popularity rating as well as market value.

"Gold jewellery is traditionally linked to Indian culture and tradition, and a brand ambassador should appear in a traditional dress such as sari or salwar kameez," said Ahmed.

Zachariah Mohammed, CEO of Dubai's Gulf Madhyamam newspaper and an expert on advertising, said: "A gold commercials should ideally have a woman celebrity but a male star – Mohanlal – was successful in the case of Malabar Gold. It was not logical to use a sports person to promote gold ornaments – normally sportswomen don't use much gold. Damas' brand ambassador is Tamil actress Laya. Many film stars appear in property and other ads."

Experts say Mirza is in high demand for billboard advertising and endorsements and her fees are second only to those charged by cricket idol Sachin Tendulkar.

Malabar Gold, part of the Malabar Group, originally chose her to promote gold sales outside Kerala as she was an emerging female star.

KK Ashraf, Director of Malabar Investments, which runs the Malabar Gold outlets in the UAE, said: "We thought Sania would be a good ambassador for our brand. Sania's assignment was mainly to promote Malabar Gold outside Kerala. We have dropped her and instead selected Bollywood star Hema Malini as the new brand ambassador outside the state."

He said the price Mirza charges to appear in adverts has risen substantially. "We could have negotiated, which was high for a jewellery business of our size," said Ashraf. "But the main problem was her attire."

He said while other big jewellery chains such as Joy Alukkas and Atlas Group used Malayalam heroines to promote gold, Malabar decided to invest in Mohanlal who is popular among the Malayalis, especially females.

"We don't regret having Mohanlal as our brand ambassador. When he opened our new showroom in Sharjah there was mayhem as Keralite women thronged to the new outlet. Our sales have gone up substantially over the last two years and one reason is definitely our brand ambassador."

Malabar Gold recently opened a wholesale division in Dubai's Gold Souq.