India's most popular actor is also highest-paid star, it's not Shah Rukh, Prabhas, Salman, Amitabh, Rajinikanth, Jr NTR

Written By Aman Wadhwa | Updated: Sep 25, 2024, 03:30 AM IST

Thalapathy Vijay is India's most popular actor

Thalapathy Vijay has beaten Prbahas, Shah Rukh Khan, Jr NTR, Mahesh Babu, Ajith Kumar, Salman Khan, Ram Charan, Allu Arjun, and Akshay Kumar to emerge as the most popular Indian actor.

With the crossover of talent across Indian film industries, the popularity of film stars has increased exponentially. From Shah Rukh Khan to Salman Khan and from Rajinikanth to Prabhas, these superstars have huge fan following around the globe. Recently, a media consulting firm Ormax India released a list of the most popular male film stars in India for the month of August 2024 and surprisingly, the list wasn't topped by the names above.

The most popular male star in India is Joseph Vijay Chandrasekhar, known simply as Vijay and fondly called as Thalapathy Vijay. The actor's most recent release is The Greatest of All Time, which is still breaking records at the box office. Released on September 5, the science fiction action thriller has earned Rs 240 crore net in India and grossed Rs 440 crore worldwide till now. Vijay recently announced his final film with the working title of Thalapathy 69, after which he will retire from acting and concentrate on politics with his party named Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam, that he launched earlier this year. As per reports, Vijay has charged Rs 275 crore for his final film and has become India's highest-paid star.

The second most popular actor in the list is Prabhas, who headlined Kalki 2898 AD this year. Directed by Nag Ashwin, the science fiction dystopian action drama film also starred Amitabh Bachchan, Deepika Padukone, and Kamal Haasan in the key roles, and is still the highest-grossing Indian film of 2024 with the worldwide collection of over Rs 1000 crore.

Shah Rukh Khan occupies the third spot. The Bollywood superstar will be sharing screen space with his daughter Suhana Khan in his next film, an action thriller King. Directed by Sujoy Ghosh, the film will feature Abhishek Bachchan as the villain and will tentatively release on Eid 2026. Jr NTR, whose next release Devara Part 1 releases this Friday, is the fourth most popular Indian actor. The action drama, directed by Koratala Siva, also features Janhvi Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan in the leading roles. Mahesh Babu, who will be seen next in SS Rajamouli's untitled globe-trotting adventure film, takes the fifth spot in the list.

Ajith Kumar, Allu Arjun, Akshay Kumar, Ram Charan, and Salman Khan have occupied the sixth to tenth spots in the Ormax Media list of most popular male film stars in August 2024. This list is prepared through primary research among the audiences through a questionnaire.

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