Mumbai: The first-ever Showstoppers edition of Forbes India was released in January and features 50 personalities from the entertainment and sports industries who excelled in their domains in 2022 as a result of their accomplishments.
The Showstoppers list is one of six different covers in a limited edition. It contains well-known superstars, but it also includes bright people who may be less well-known yet have excelled in their industries in 2022. The list of 50, which includes 15 from OTT, 20 from movies, and 20 from sports, is unranked and put together by a panel of experts.
Actress Alia Bhatt is speaking with the media for the first time since the birth of her daughter Raha. And thanks to OTT, stars Manoj Bajpayee and Shefali Shah have finally received their due rewards. The magazine also charts actor Deepika Padukone's emergence as a potent fashion icon. It examines how Smriti Mandhana, the Indian women's cricket team's opening batter, is just getting started despite reaching a number of significant milestones early on in her career. There is also a page dedicated to AR Rahman, who has won numerous national awards, including two Oscars and Grammys, throughout his career as a composer, producer, author, and director.
“This year we deviated from the familiar script. Sure, we have the celebrities, but along with them, there are up-and-comers from the OTT and non-Bollywood brigade, and sportspersons (not just cricketers), who blazed a trail on track, field, in the boxing ring and over 64 squares,” says Forbes India editor Brian Carvalho.
“The celebrity issue is all about mapping milestones and achieving new landmarks of success. This year, we have curated a list of celebrities who are breaking barriers in their fields. Whether it be sports or entertainment, Forbes India has covered them” says Forbes India COO Preeti Sahni.
All performances and accomplishments from January 2022 through the first week of December 2022 were taken into consideration.
The film category includes 15 actors and five directors who have achieved the highest level of success with their theatrical releases. Telugu, Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, and Kannada, India's top five mainstream cinema industries, were taken into consideration for the movies and performances. Similarly, the names of 10 actors, five filmmakers, and 15 athletes were shortlisted for OTT.
The selection criteria for cinema and OTT go beyond box office success and commercial viability to take into account the quality of their work as well as how distinctive, sensitive, accomplished, or unique it was, as well as how it stacks up against those of other performers or directors.
Four out of the five filmmakers on the list are from South India, and their works have been well received both domestically and abroad. This includes Sanjay Leela Bhansali for Gangubai Kathiawadi, Lokesh Kanakaraj for his film Vikram, Mani Ratnam for Ponniyin Selvan:1, and Goutham Ramachandran for Gargi, and SS Rajamouli for RRR. Actors Sakshi Tanwar, Madhuri Dixit, Joju George, Huma Qureshi, Nithya Menen, and Geetanjali Kulkarni are among the people on the OTT list. Filmmakers Abhay Pannu, Jasmeet K Reen, Pushkar-Gayathri, Richie Mehta, and Tanuj Chopra are also included.
In addition to javelin champion and Olympic gold medalist Neeraj Chopra, the list of athletes also includes athletes from other sports besides cricket, such as track and field athlete Avinash Sable, India's youngest grandmaster D Gukesh, teenage shuttler Manisha Ramadass, and weightlifter Mirabai Chanu.
The film jury included a national award-winning film critic and Galatta Plus editor-in-chief, Baradwaj Rangan; an independent writer, critic, and teacher, Jai Arjun Singh; and a film journalist who writes about cinema with a focus on gender and intersectionality, Ashameera Aiyappan.
The OTT jury comprised critics Poulomi Das, Rahul Desai, and Udita Jhunjhunwala, while the sports jury had Sportstar editor Ayon Sengupta, senior sports writer and columnist Sharda Ugra, and sports writer Susan Ninan.
The jury members encouraged the development of a lengthy and interesting list. The cinema category features promising actors who had a successful run in 2022 alongside legendary and well-known stars. Of the 20 names, 14 are actors and filmmakers who primarily work in one or more South Indian industries. This includes Tabu, Alia Bhatt, Rajkummar Rao, Mammootty, Karthi, and Ayushmann Khurrana, in addition to Aishwarya Lekshmi, Sai Pallavi, Rishab Shetty, and Suraj Venjaramoodu.
