The Forbes India Celebrity 100 list is round the corner!
Get ready for a New Year’s surprise in 2013.
Much like the World’s Most Powerful Celebrities list published by the US edition of Forbes, India’s biggest celebrities will be measured on two dimensions: fame and money. We will tot up their gross estimated income related to entertainment for the period October 1, 2011 to September 30, 2012. The fame quotient will cover their exposure across print, web, TV and social media.
Given just how hard my colleagues have been working on it, this promises to be the first serious attempt at setting new benchmarks for creative excellence. We have a clutch of partners working with us. Our principal data partners Percept Talent Management, LexisNexis and TAM-Eikona have thrown their weight behind the project. And indiantelevision.com, Carving Dreams, tellychakkar.com and Nielsen Book Scan have also lend enormous support. To help raise the bar on compliance and rigour in the methodology, Ernst & Young Pvt. Ltd will be working with us as our process advisors.
A long list of over 250 celebrities is now ready. Click here to review the full list. (If you'd like to suggest any additions, please drop us a line at letterstoforbesindia@network18online.com before December 21, 2012). By next month, this long list will be whittled down to arrive at the Forbes India's 100 Most Influential Celebrities, based on all the data that is fed into our model.
This Forbes India celebrity power list comes on the back of a steadily growing coverage of the creative economy since our launch in May 2009. It also ties in neatly with the DNA of the Forbes brand of entrepreneurial capitalism. We look upon these celebrities as serious entrepreneurs who often take incredible bets and use their creative genius to entertain and mesmerise audiences, in India and abroad.
A special edition of Forbes India built around the Celebrity 100 list will hit the stands on January 25. It’ll bring you face-to-face with some of the smartest entrepreneurs, who are setting new rules, challenging existing assumptions and in the process, lighting up the country’s creative economy.
Meanwhile, as a precursor to all the action, I’ve curated a selection of our best stories on some of these creative entrepreneurs over the past three-and-a-half years. Sit back and enjoy reading my top 10 picks.
2. Teller of Stories: He was succeeding as a banker and was pretty much in line for a BMW. But one day, Chetan Bhagat decided to write more than just the ledger account.
3. How Onir got money through Facebook: As an independent filmmaker, how do you make the movie you want to make, when you don't have funds? Onir decided to go to the people.
4. Why Rajinikanth Rocks: If anyone can make Chuck Norris look like a one-roundhouse-kick wonder, it is this southern superstar. He’s larger than life. His fans would have you believe, he created God when he smiled.
5. Dog Sense in Jingle Jungle: It is not just the beauty of the tune that determines the right price for a piece of music.
6. Kahani Ekta Kapoor Ki: She built India's most successful television production company, but failed to prepare it for bad times. And then, she gave the tale a twist.
8. Playing a Positive Role: Anurag Kashyap Films is making it easier for independent films to be made in India.
9. Let the Show(down) begin: Ajay Bijli's PVR and Mexican chain Cinepolis will be locked in a fascinating duel in the world's biggest market of moviegoers.
10. No Cuts. Only Rushes: Actor Aamir Khan talks about why he is a producer, how he deals with pain and the award functions that he does attend.