Yes, the captain of the Indian cricket team seems to be leading the power list as well. According to the second wave results of CelebTrack, Dhoni leads the power list followed by Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai and Amitabh Bachchan. CelebTrack is a research conducted by Percept Talent Management and Hansa Research to determine the popularity of celebs and their influence on consumers.

India’s most powerful celebs are as follows:

1. MS Dhoni
2. Shah Rukh Khan
3. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan
4. Amitabh Bachchan
5. Sachin Tendulkar
6. Hrithik Roshan
7. Yuvraj Singh
8. Katrina Kaif
9. Akshay Kumar
10. Salman Khan

Sachin Tendulkar slipped to fifth position (from last year’s top slot) wheras Aishwarya Rai ranked higher on CPS than her father-in-law. Salman Khan, Sachin Tendulkar, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Sania Mirza top their respective genres as the most recognised stars. Amitabh Bachchan replaced Salman Khan in terms of likeability.

The study is based on data from 12,000 respondents (urban, adults, SEC ABCD, aged 15-50 years) across India. The research reveals the position of celebrities on five parameters – media presence, popularity, image attributes, power of persuasion and over exposure – on which the celebrity power scores. This time, more celebrities from different genres (anchors, musicians) and better probing techniques have been employed.

Research was conducted on 400 celebrities across the country and were ranked on the basis of above mentioned criteria. A Celebrity Power Score (CPS) was generated and higher the rankings, the more favorable the celeb would be for an advertiser.

Manish Porwal, chief executive officer, Percept Talent Management, says, “Our clients can now make informed and learned decisions, rather than relying on gut and anecdotal learning. Also, celebrities can benchmark themselves vis-à-vis their audience and accordingly price their involvement with brands.”