IMDb 2025 list: Saiyaara debutants Ahaan Panday, Aneet Padda make top stars

Saiyaara debutants Ahaan Panday and Aneet Padda featured on IMDb's most popular Indian stars list for 2025, while director Mohit Suri topped IMDb's first-ever most popular Indian directors list

Romantic film Saiyaara, which debuted actors Ahaan Panday and Aneet Padda, has placed both in IMDb’s top 10 popular Indian stars in 2025.

 

Why did Saiyaara’s cast and director feature on IMDb’s 2025 rankings?

 

Yash Raj Films’ produced movie about a struggling musician (Panday) and a young writer (Padda) diagnosed with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease struck a chord with Gen Z audiences through its story and musical tracks. The film’s director, Mohit Suri, topped IMDb’s top 10 popular Indian directors list in 2025, according to a release. The list is based on stars and film-makers who consistently ranked the highest on IMDb’s weekly rankings throughout 2025, and is based on the page views of more than 250 million monthly visitors to IMDb worldwide.

 

Which actors rounded out IMDb’s most popular Indian stars list in 2025?

 

Sitaare Zameen Par, a soft sequel to Aamir Khan’s 2007 release Taare Zameen Par, and Khan’s special cameo in Rajinikanth-starrer Coolie created a buzz and led him to be the third most popular Indian star in 2025. He was followed by Ishaan Khatter, whose recent film Homebound, India’s official entry to the Oscars, came in fourth place. At fifth place is Lakshya Lalwani, the protagonist of the The Ba***ds of Bollywood Netflix series.

 

Which names from IMDb’s 2024 list returned in 2025?

 

Meanwhile, Khatter and actor Triptii Dimri are the only names from the most popular Indian stars of 2024 list who appear in this year’s list as well. The sixth most popular star is Rashmika Mandanna. She saw several releases this year across genres and languages, from starring as Yesubai Bhonsale in Chhaava and Salman Khan’s Sikandar, to the Diwali release Thamma, part of Maddock Films’ horror-comedy universe, and Telugu films Kuberaa and The Girlfriend.

 

Who featured on IMDb’s first most popular Indian directors list?

 

After Suri, Aryan Khan was ranked second. He made his debut as a director with The Ba***ds of Bollywood, a Hindi-language satirical action-comedy drama series. Apart from directing the series, he also created and co-wrote it, which saw several prominent actors making cameo or special appearances. Aryan Khan is the youngest director to feature on the list and the only series director on it, the release added.

 

What did IMDb say about launching a directors’ ranking list?

 

“This year we are introducing our first-ever IMDb Most Popular Indian Directors list alongside our annual Most Popular Indian Stars ranking,” said Yaminie Patodia, head of IMDb India, in a statement. “In the 25 Years of Indian Cinema IMDb Industry Report, we highlighted the emergence of directors as the key architects of this new era of Indian cinema. Film-makers now consistently appear on our weekly rankings alongside actors, signalling that directors themselves are becoming fan favourites, with world-building and storytelling as the new engines of fandom.”

 

Who else ranked among the top Indian directors in 2025?

 

An action thriller film, Coolie’s director Lokesh Kanagaraj, was ranked third in the popular Indian directors list in 2025. Kanagaraj was followed by film-maker Anurag Kashyap.

 

At fifth place is Prithviraj Sukumaran, director of Malayalam-language movie L2: Empuraan, which was one of the major contributors to the Malayalam film industry’s box office collections this year.