BAV: Celeb vs celeb

In an exclusive arrangement with Rediffusion Y&R we present findings from the latest BAV study. The third and final part focuses on celebs

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Bollywood and cricket are undoubtedly the two biggest recipients of India’s collective adulation. But which of these is bigger? Far too often people have shied away from putting the number one tag to any one of these at the expense of the other. The thought may have occurred, it must have appeared tempting, but the repercussions and ramifications would have felt too overwhelming for anybody to either hazard a guess or build a case!

Normally any ratings of celebrities is usually done within the confines of the respective categories – sports icons separately, movie idols separately for example. Rediffusion Y&R’s BAV however does not distinguish between celebrities from different fields, nor does it distinguish between brands and celebrities. The assumption being that celebs too are strong, differentiated brands by themselves. And the metrics for measuring them should not necessarily be different from those used to measure the power of brands.

The top 20 Indian Celebrities, as per BAV 2017, and as rated by men, women, SEC ABC, 18-65 year olds across 16 Indian cities/towns are:

Rank	Celebrities
1	Sachin Tendulkar
2	MS Dhoni
3	Virat Kohli
4	Amitabh Bachchan
5	Salman Khan
6	Aamir Khan
7	Shahrukh Khan
8	Ajay Devgan
9	HrithikRoshan
10	HemaMalini
11	Madhuri Dixit
12	Suresh Raina
13	Yuvraj Singh
14	Priyanka Chopra
15	Akshay Kumar
16	Saif Ali Khan
17	Anoushka Sharma
18	Aishwarya Rai
19	Vidhya Balan
20	Sonakshi Sinha

The axiom ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’ seems to be working big time for Sachin Tendulkar, as he tops one more chart, even years after retirement! God’s mass popularity is still intact it seems. MS Dhoni retains his second position from 2013, even after relinquishing captaincy and pulling out of Test cricket, while ‘next demi-god’ Virat Kohli gains 10 places in rankings, up from 13th place in 2013 BAV to third place currently. The fact that the top three on the list are cricketers may make a case for cricket fanatics to claim that cricket is even more endearing to us as a race than even Bollywood!

However, Bollywood lovers can quickly point out that 15 in the top 20 list are movie stars while there are only five representatives from cricket, Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina being the other two. What’s also interesting is that 7 out of the top 20 power celebs are women. Old seems to be gold for our mass audience as Hema Malini and Madhuri Dixit are the top two women in the list at 10th and 11th places respectively. However Deepika Padukone, Katrina Kaif, Alia Bhatt and Saina Nehwal are outside the top 20 list, being ranked at 23rd, 24th, 27th and 36th respectively.

Aishwariya Rai, amongst women and Yuvraj Singh amongst men are the big losers in this BAV, the former dropping 11 places from seventh to 18th and the latter moving from sixth to 13th. Priyanka Chopra may have made the big move to Hollywood, but her rankings have dipped at home from 11th to 14th this year.

The picture changes quite dramatically if you look at youth’s perspective on the celebs. So far as young India goes, India’s top celebs are as follows:

1	Virat Kohli
2	Sachin Tendulkar
3	MS Dhoni
4	Salman Khan
5	Amitabh Bachchan
6	Ajay Devgan
7	Aamir Khan
8	Priyanka Chopra
9	Katrina Kaif
10	Alia Bhatt
11	Suresh Raina
12	Shraddha Kapur
13	Kapil Sharma
14	Bipasha Basu
15	Anoushka Sharma
16	Sonakshi Sinha
17	Saif Ali Khan
18	Varun Dhawan
19	Madhuri Dixit
20	Hrithik Roshan
21	Shahrukh Khan

While the top three remain the same, there is a juggling of spaces with Virat moving to number one and Sachin and Dhoni slipping one place each to second and third respectively. Salman Khan makes his gala entry at fourth. Kapil Sharma laughs his way into 13th place. The likes of Katrina, Alia, Shraddha Kapur, Bipasha Basu and Varun Dhawan force their way into this list, clearly pointing out the choices of the new generation. And though it was meant to be a top 20 list, it was just the name and stature of the person in the 21st place that made us extend this list – Shah Rukh Khan. A string of not-so-hot Box Office collections seems to have left an impact even on the redoubtable SRK, with the other two Khans being in the list ahead of him.