Amitabh, Rekha emerge as India's most searched 'classic actors'

Jul 16, 2016 IANS

Mumbai: Megastar Amitabh Bachchan and evergreen actress Rekha, who have famously co-starred in films like "Silsila" and "Mr. Natwarlal", have landed top spots in a list of 'Classic Actors' and 'Classic Actresses', drawn on the basis of the most searched about Indian cinema stars on Google over the last 10 years.

Similar lists have been drawn for actors, actresses, directors, singers and movies that have inspired the most digital curiosity in India between 2006 to 2016.

While Amitabh, 73, has topped a list which comprises Kamal Hassan, Rajesh Khanna, Mithun Chakraborty, Rajkumar, Dharmendra, Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand, Raj Kapoor and lastly Rishi Kapoor (in the same order), the enigmatic Rekha has left behind screen beauties like Sridevi, Madhubala, Hema Malini, Zeenat Aman, Dimple Kapadia, Mumtaz, Meena Kumari, Parveen Babi and Saira Banu.

Among the actors, "Dabangg" superstar Salman Khan who has taken the box office by storm with his latest release "Sultan" has secured the top spot. He has pipped Shah Rukh Khan, Akshay Kumar, Amitabh, Rajinikanth, Hrithik Roshan, Shahid Kapoor, Ranbir Kapoor, Aamir Khan and Emraan Hashmi.

Indo-Canadian porn star Sunny Leone, who forayed into Bollywood with "Jism 2" and has since then landed herself in various movies and item songs, has been generating curiosity among Google fans too. Users seem to be wanting to know more about her than about names like Katrina Kaif, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Kajal Aggarwal, Deepika Padukone, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Priyanka Chopra, Tamannaah Bhatia, Alia Bhatt and Sonakshi Sinha.

“Indians have been turning to the web to find out more about their favourite stars for over a decade now and we have been evolving Google Search to give them richer, better answers,” said Sapna Chadha, Google India's Marketing Head.

“With around 1 in 10 mobile searches in India related to Indian cinema, we recently launched a range of immense search experiences that give film lovers an easy way to discover and explore everything they want to know about their favourite movies, stars, music, actors and more," Chadha added.

As per the search trends, Aamir's "PK" has managed to attract more attention than "Kahaani", "Baahubali",

"Aashiqui 2", "Dhoom 3", "Kick", "Bajrangi Bhaijaan", "Happy New Year", "Hero" and "Ek Villian".

In the director's category, Prabhudheva took the lion's share in terms of being 'searched' on Google. He was followed by Karan Johar, Farhan Akhtar, Raj Kapoor, Ram Gopal Varma, Farah Khan, Anurag Kashyap, Yash Chopra. Rohit Shetty and Rajkumar Hirani.

It's also interesting how while rap is getting increasingly popular in Bollywood, Yo Yo Honey Singh has emerged as the top searched singer on Google in the country. Others who round up the top ten are Atif Aslam, Arijit Singh, Lata Mangeshkar, Sonu Nigam, Kishore Kumar, Shreya Ghoshal, Kumar Sanu, Himesh Reshammiya and Sunidhi Chauhan.