Salman
Chaya Unnikrishnan (DNA; October 18, 2015)

Ormax Media has just released its list of top 10 male and female stars ranked according to their popularity. While Salman Khan is the numero uno among male actors, Katrina Kaif has emerged as the top female star. What’s interesting is that Salman has topped the list for five years continuously. Says Shailesh Kapoor, CEO, Ormax Media, “We started the survey in 2010 and it’s a monthly list. Every month we interview close to 3,500 theatre-goers across 29 cities and ask them to name two of their favourite stars — male and female. Based on that, we draw a list of top 10 stars. It is a measure of their popularity. Salman has remained on top since then. The No 2 star keeps oscillating between Akshay Kumar (he has a strong equity in small centres, single theatres and among males), Aamir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan (who are more popular among females), but the gap between Salman and the No 2 star is vast.” As per the recent score averaged over three months Salman is ahead of Akshay Kumar with 46 per cent shares while the Khiladi has 23 per cent.

Amongst the girls, it’s Katrina, who has been topping the list for five years, except for two months — May and June 2015 — when Deepika Padukone overtook her. However, the two are racing neck-and-neck. While Kat has cornered 34 per cent shares, Dippy has 33 per cent shares.

Another interesting finding Kapoor came across was that an older star like Amitabh Bachchan is ahead of Gen Next stars like Ranbir Kapoor and Shahid Kapoor, while Madhuri Dixit and Kajol rank ahead of Sonam Kapoor and Shraddha Kapoor. “It shows that the fan following is built over the years. Also, if a film or show of the star is in the news, there is an impact, but it is only 10-20 per cent. The star may move from No 4 to No 3 for a month or two, that’s all. The rest of the ranking has remained pretty much stable.”