Data Tracker: The value of stardust

The Forbes 2017 list of top 100 celebrities had its predictable winners and trends but the year also threw up a few surprises. Top celebrities saw their earnings dip and women, despite their increased visibility across categories, saw their share of earnings shrink in the overall celebrity earnings. The year saw the rise of the South Indian movie star in the celebrity rankings and the dramatic rise of P V Sindhu. But even though other badminton stars made the list, no other sport comes close to cricket in the celebrity sweepstakes.

• Eleven of the top 20 celebrities have seen their earnings dip compared with last year
 

• South Indian stars rode the Baahubali wave, S S Rajamouli entered the list this year, ranked at number 15 with earnings at Rs 55 crore 
 

• There were 14 celebrities from the South Indian film industry on the list, Director SS Rajamouli was the biggest earner from his industry with actors Prabhas and Suriya ranked 2 and 3
 

• No women from the South Indian film industry made it to the list
 

• The share of women celebrities in the total earnings pie was just 17 per cent, there are 21 women on the list this year which is eight less than 2016
 

• Women celebrities collectively earned Rs 463 crore, around five per cent less than last year
 

• Salman Khan who topped the India list earned Rs 63.7 lakh a day last year
 

• Salman Khan also tops the average first-day box office collections by film stars over the past six years 
 

• Akshay Kumar has the maximum releases over the past six years with 17 movies, Anushka Sharma and Kangana Ranaut take the second spot with 10 releases each
 

• Social media platforms have become the favourite hunting ground for celebrities; Instagram is dominated largely by women celebrities with Virat Kohli being the only male in the top 5 (17.3 million followers). Deepika Padukone (20.6 million followers) is the most popular star on the platform
 

• On Facebook,  Virat Kohli tops the list of five most popular stars with 36 million followers
 

• On Twitter, Amitabh Bachchan is the most sought after with 31.7 million followers 
 

• The youngest celebrity on the list is P V Sindhu (22 years), Alia Bhatt, Kidambi Srikanth and Hardik Pandya are next at 24 years. Sindhu is ranked at 13 in the Forbes Celebrity 100 while Alia is at 21, Srikanth at 83 and Pandya at 94 
 

• There are 21 sports celebrities on the 2017 list, of this 15 are cricketers
 

• Out of a list of 100, 62 are under 40 years. The list gets younger each year as more and more sportspersons join the league

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Source: Forbes Celebrity 100 2017