Monday, February 16, 2015

Big B, Khans ahead of Narendra Modi on Twitter: Bollywood beats cricket stars in list of Indian celebrities with most followers; Sachin Tendulkar left far behind

Who is the most popular Indian on Twitter? Big B, Amitabh Bachchan, has 13.2 million followers.

Bachchan was active on Twitter long before other celebrities took to it.

Second is Shahrukh Khan, the Badshah of Bollywood, with over 11.4 million or 1.14 crore people following him on this micro-blogging site.

Surprisingly, Aamir Khan comes after him with 11.2 million or 1.12 crore people following him. 'Dabangg' Salman Khan is fourth with 10.6 million or 1.06 crore people following him.

But PM Narendra Modi is giving them a tough competition. The Prime Minister of India has over 10 million followers (10.1) too, and this makes him a rare politician in Asia with such a huge number of followers on this social media platform.

Modi has more than 0.1 million followers now. The difference of one digit may seem less but there is still a difference of 3 million or 30 lakh with Big B and over 1 million or 10-14 lakh followers between him and King Khan.

In fact, earlier it was reported that Modi was second only to Barack Obama among politicians in terms of popularity on Twitter. India's huge population is definitely an asset for its movie personalities as well as its politicians.

Deepika Padukone, Priyanka Chopra are also knocking at the door of the crore-pati [10 million followers] club on Twitter. Deepika has 9.5 lakh followers while Priyanka Chopra has 8.79 lakh. Then comes Hrithik Roshan [8.5 lakh]. Akshay Kumar is also in the line with 7.5 lakh people following him.

Tendulkar is not a crore-pati on Twitter yet: Bollywood beats God of Indian cricket

The general perception is that two things Indians love most is Bollywood and Cricket. But here, cricket seems to be lagging. The 'God' of Indian cricket, Sachin Tendulkar has 5.07 million or over 50 lakh followers. Not a crore-pati on Twitter yet. Even Karan Johar has more followers that him. 

The exception is Virat Kohli, who has quickly reached 5.5 million. Given his popularity and that he is in full flow, he is likely to give a tough competition to other celebrities on the social media site.

Dhoni has 3.5 million or 35 lakh followers. My hero of yesteryear Sunil Gavaskar has less than 50,000 followers. Can there be anything more saddening? We all know that on Twitter, many inactive tweeple follow their celebrities, even if the latter rarely tweet.

But given the huge difference in following, it seems, cricket maniacs are less in number now. The movie stars are far ahead. Among politicians, once, Shashi Tharoor, was far ahead in popularity. But now, he is far behind, with 2.78 million or 27.8 lakh followers. Digvijaya Singh is close with over 25 lakh followers.


Twitter: The handles of these celebrities are mentioned below

List of the TOP TEN Indians on TWITTER

Celebrities               Twitter handle                          Number of followers

Amitabh Bachchan @SrBachchan                                        13.2 million  [1.32 crore]
Shahrukh Khan       @iamsrk                                                11.4 million  [1.14 crore]
Aamir Khan            @aamir_khan                                        11.2 million  [1.12 crore]
Salman Khan          @BeingSalmanKhan                             10.6 million  [1.06 crore]
Narendra Modi        @narendramodi                                    10.1 million  [1.01 crore]
Deepika Padukone  @deepikapadukone                                  9.5 million [95 lakh]
Priyanka Chopra     @priyankachopra                                     8.79 million [87 lakh]
Hrithik Roshan        @ihrithik                                                  8.51 million [85 lakh]
Askhay Kumar        @akshaykumar                                        7.54 million [75.4 lakh]
Karan Johar             @karanjohar                                            5.6  million [56 lakh]
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Virat Kohli              @iamvkohli                                               5.5 million [55 lakh]
Sachin Tendulkar    @sachin_rt                                               5.07 million [50.7 lakh]
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Arvind Kejriwal       @arvindkejriwal                                   3.63 lakh
Dilip Kumar            @TheDilipKumar                                 3.36 lakh
MS Dhoni                @msdhoni                                          3.52 lakh

The leaders are mostly movie stars, politicians or, yes, some cricketers. The rabble-rousing politicians (the names which may come to your mind) have followers in thousands only.

[Just the most popular personalities with highest following on Twitter have been mentioned. Not all celebrities have been mentioned here. The statistics are till February 15, 2015]