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]
....................................................
....................................................
Virat Kohli              @iamvkohli                                               5.5 million [55 lakh]
Sachin Tendulkar    @sachin_rt                                               5.07 million [50.7 lakh]
.....................................................
.....................................................
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]

Indian Newspapers' front pages after cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar announced his retirement from the game

Sachin Tendulkar's retirement was the biggest news in India. After all, in a nation of 1.2 billion, he was the cricketing god.

Across the world it was BC or AD. But from 1989 till 2013, it was Sachin Age, in India. See the front pages of all the national newspapers. Most of them splashed the news across eight columns and up to the bottom of the page.

The impact of Tendulkar on Indian masses can't be described in a short blog post. Indian cricket had come of age, long ago. Sunil Gavaskar remains a batting legend and no one can question his greatness. Still, there was a time when Indian team would do everything right but lacked the spirit that is needed to snatch victory.

Sachin Tendulkar's arrival changed it forever. From his sixes in ace spinner Abdul Qadir's over during his first tour to Pakistan, which are still remembered, Tendulkar went own to become one of the greatest batsmen the world has ever seen.

SRT didn't just accumulate runs but scored them in style and also dominated the bowling attacks across the world--for such a long period.

In fact, the amount of cricket he has played is astonishing. No wonder, the pundits put him in the league with all-time greats like WG Grace and Sir Don Bradman.

It was under his shadow that the new crop of confident cricketers appeared on the scene. Today, certain players may act arrogantly and may not give him due credit, but we know the reality.

It was seeing Sachin play, that they got inspired to play the game and later, alongside him on the pitch, learnt the game, to become heroes of the new age.

Sachin's contribution to Indian cricket is immense. So much has been written and will be written about him. Mothers wanted their sons to be like him. Despite the accolades, he remains a down to earth person.

This is a rare quality. For a quarter century, he has been a superhero in this nation, and yet success never went to his head.

Clearly, he deserves Bharat Ratna. This post is not about his cricketing exploits as enough has been written elsewhere.There are numerous other qualities that made him the hero of this nation, and we will delve into them at a later stage.

Above are front pages of Hindustan Times, Times of India, Indian Express, The Telegraph, Mail Today and Asian Age. I wish I could get The Hindu's front page also. Hindi, Urdu papers also played up the news. [See Hindustan and Urdu Times, Mumbai on the right]

In fact, it deserved this much space. English newspapers dedicated the entire cover page but in comparison, regional language dailies gave space to other news stories also on this day.

OCTOBER 11, 2013.