Bollywood superstar Salman Khan may have unseated his actor-friend Shah Rukh Khan to become the top earning celebrity of 2016 in the Forbes India Celebrity 100 List with an estimated income of Rs 270.33 crore, but the poster boy of Indian cricket, Virat Kohli beat Salman in terms of fame by pushing him to second spot. Kohli is third on the top earning celebrity list followed by actor Akshay Kumar and most successful Indian captain, MS Dhoni chronologically. 

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In the fifth rich 100 celeb list released by Forbes India, the ranking is based on two parameters - estimates of entertainment-related earnings and estimates of fame during the period October 2015 to September 2016. When it comes to fame ranking, Test cricket captain Virat Kohli is the most popular celebrity and this has improved his earnings rank to No. 3 with a reported Rs 134.44 crore earnings. In 2015, Kohli was ranked No 7.

It wasn't a surprise to see Kohli score over Salman as the Delhi lad have had a Bradmanesque year both as a batsman and skipper. Kohli with an average of 88.96 currently sits on top of the table of highest run-getters across all formats in 2016. He not only guided India to the top of Test rankings but ensured his team remained unbeaten in Tests in 2016 and had a record 18-match unbeaten streak. Add to that his heroics in IPL 9 where he scored four hundreds and ended up being the highest scorer of the edition.

Though Mahendra Singh Dhoni has retired from Test cricket, he had estimated earnings of Rs 122.48 crore and fame ranking of four. His fame quotient has shot up this year because of the biopic on him, fetching him the fifth position overall in this year's list.