MUMBAI: Officer's Choice is now everybody’s choice. The Indian whisky brand has knocked Smirnoff vodka off its perch as the world's largest spirits brand by volume.In calendar 2014, Kishore Chhabria-promoted Allied Blenders & Distillers (ABD) sold 28.4 million cases, or over 255 million litres, of Officers Choice whisky. That's four times the tank size that Hollywood director James Cameron built for his film Titanic to give an ocean view and 100 times the size of an Olympicsized swimming pool. That also roughly translates into one quarter bottle of Officer’s Choice for every Indian citizen, or more than three weeks of milk collected by Amul.In comparison, British beverages giant Diageo sold 25.6 million cases of Smirnoff vodka, according to the annual Brand Champions report by The Spirits Business, a UK based spirits magazine and portal.The third largest selling spirits brand, too, is an Indian whisky — McDowell’s No 1 of United Spirits , which sold 25.1 million cases last year. In fact, five Indian made foreign liquor (IMFL) brands featured in the top ten bestselling spirits across segments worldwide with combined sales exceeding 100 million cases. They include McDowell’s No. 1 Celebration rum, Royal Stag and Imperial Blue (both whisky brands of Pernod Ricard India) besides Officer’s Choice and McDowell’s No. 1.Officer’s Choice (OC), a 27 years old brand, was historically targeted at blue collared workers and daily wage earners, but now it straddles across segments, with premium versions such as Officer’s Choice Blue and Officer’s Choice Black."We had undergone a brand revitalisation exercise on Officer’s Choice a little more than six years back where we upgraded packaging, repositioned the brand and created impactful branded properties," said Ahmed Rahimtoola , marketing head at ABD. "OC Blue that was launched three years ago has already crossed 7 million case mark, helping the overall growth," he said. Officer’s Choice had surpass Johnnie Walker as the world’s best-selling whisky in 2013.Experts say Officer’s Choice offers good value for its price. "The price is really appealing considering that OC is made of grain compared to other whiskey brands that are made of molasses," said Suket Shetty of Laxmi Vilas Hindu Hotel at Kalbadevi in Mumbai, which sells nearly 100 bottles of Officer’s Choice every week. "At Rs 225 for a quarter, it’s a good deal," he said.While so many Indian brands have made it to the world’s top seller list, the Indian spirits industry has achieved it despite a number of challenges, ranging from poor customer reach to high taxes. India’s 290 million cases spirits market is the world's second largest after China that consumes 620 million cases of alcohol every year. With only 65,000 licensed spirits retailers in the country, there is just one retail outlet per 18,000 people in the country. That’s 76 times lower than the global average.The industry is also facing huge tax burden. "According to our analysis, for mainstream domestic spirits (IMFL), the retail price can be six times the ex-distillery price," said Nitin Mathur , an analyst at French financial services firm Societe Generale. ABD, for example, paid taxes including excise and service tax of around Rs 6,600 crore just on the Officer's Choice franchise in the year ended March 2015. The country’s largest liquor company, United Spirits, paid over Rs 13,000 crore in excise duty alone on net sales of Rs 9,000 crore.