STAR Power

The research  — Celeb Track— by Percept Talent Management and Hansa Research is an outcome of data gathering method (which is comprehensive and tamper-proof) from over 12,000 respondents (urban, all adults, SEC ABCD and 15-50 years). The celebrities are judged on five parameters:

Media presence (read coverage and tonality): Coverage means the stars who are most written in media (both good or bad write-ups). Saina Nehwal is written about more than Shah Rukh Khan or for that matter Kareena Kapoor — well, you need to move beyond Page 3 to figure that out. Tonality includes positive coverage only. The research has shown women celeb, for example Genelia D’souza, gets more positive coverage than their male counterparts (say Govinda). No surprise here, given media is a male dominant industry.

Popularity: Popularity is nothing but a simple addition of recognition and likeability. Aishwarya Rai and Sania Mirza are the most popular female actor and sports woman respectively because we all recognise them and like them (besides leching, drooling and falling all over them). Here’s another surprise! Sachin Tendulkar is the most popular celebrity in the country (in terms of recognition and popularity), more than even Amitabh Bachan and Govinda (but why’s he in the list anyway?)

Image attributes: This one was surely for girls. The category was to show who’s the cutest, macho, handsome, healthy, sexy, cool and energetic in the industry? Most women found Akshay Kumar all that (only after he got his body waxed). SRK’s cute, they said. John Abraham is sexy. Aamir has none of the above. The next parameter was character appeal. Amitabh Bachchan ruled the roost for being trustworthy, self-made, savvy, intelligent, creative, humble, funny, family-oriented, dynamic, classy all. (No rigging here).

Power of persuasion: The research brought forth a significant point. Power of persuasion is polarised among women celebs. So, if Aishwarya Rai and Katrina Kaif came on television and spoke about something which we didn’t want to buy or couldn’t afford to buy (say a Beemer), after watching the show/ad, we could go to the extent of mortgaging our house or sell wife’s jewellery to buy it. But, if any other female actor endorsed the product, we would switch channels. In comparison, persuasion power is fragmented among top male actors. Big B is good at general products, Hrithik Roshan is good at hi-tech products, John at cosmetics and SRK at self-indulgence products.

Over-exposure: No research is complete without Rakhi Sawant (and her mother). So, a special category was created for her. Over-exposed is someone we don’t want to see much of, (unless you pay me to watch them.) Research said something obvious, finally. Rakhi Sawant topped the list, followed by Mallika Sherawat. Also, Narain Karthikeyan, Sreesanth and Leander Paes are in the list. Considering no one wants to read about them, it’s best we conclude here.

 Source: Percept Talent Management and Hansa Research)