The south Indian actor with the highest number of social media following is a pan-India superstar but not Rajinikanth, Thalapathy Vijay, Prabhas, or Ram Charan
Social media has given a boost to the fandom of several stars in the Indian film industry. As films have broken language barriers and travelled pan-India, stars from the so-called ‘regional’ film industries have amassed new fans and followers on social media. This has allowed many of them to become as big as – if not bigger than – many Bollywood stars. The most popular actor from south India actually has a whopping 55 million followers across the three major social media platforms (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter), solidifying his spot as a pan-India superstar
South India’s most popular actor is…
The star of Pushpa, Allu Arjun, boasts of the highest social media following among all stars from the four major south industries – Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam. The actor has 25 million followers on Instagram, 21 million on Facebook, and just under 9 million on Twitter, giving him a consolidated follower count of 55 million (or 5.5 crore). This is an impressive figure but still far below the A-listers from Bollywood. Salman Khan and Akshay Kumar lead the list of most popular Indian actors with consolidated 166 million and 163 million followers on social media respectively, while Shah Rukh Khan follows with 133 million followers.
How Allu Arjun beat legends like Rajinikanth and contemporaries Prabhas, Ram Charan
Allu Arjun is a huge star but his stardom still pales in comparison to the likes of Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, and Chiranjeevi, all of whom are legends in their respective industries. Yet, the drawback of having a majority of their fans over the age of 35 and 40 has limited their online popularity. They are also relatively less active on social media, limiting their reach. This is why Rajinikanth has only 8 million followers, Kamal Haasan 15 million, and Chiranjeevi just 6 million.
The younger generation of superstars from these industries still fare better. Allu Arju’s cousin, actor Ram Charan follows him with 37 million followers across Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, with Prabhas (35 milion) following him. Other popular stars include Dhanush (25 million), Suriya (24 million), Thalapathy Vijay, Yash, Dulquer Salmaan (all 23 million), and Jr NTR (21 million). Arjun’s immense popularity can be attributed to the influence of his last release – Pushpa – in the north. The film made him a star even in the Hindi-speaking belt.
All about Allu Arjun
Allu Arjun is one of the highest-paid actors in Indian cinema. Son of filmmaker Allu Aravind, he worked as a child artiste in the 80s before debuting as a lead actor with Gangotri in 2003. In the first few years of his career, he saw successes like Arya and Vedam, following it up with bigger hits like Badrinath, S/O Satyamurthy, and Sarrainodu. After 2019, Arjun saw superstardom with the immense success of Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo followed by the pan-India blockbuster Pushpa: The Rise. Both the films are among the highest-grossing Telugu films of all time. He will reprise his role as sandal smuggler Pushpa in Pushpa 2: The Rule, releasing in August this year.
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