Google Year In Search 2016: Sonam Gupta Beats Vijay Mallya In People Search; Sultan Overtakes Kabali!

The most interesting thing to happen on Google India this year is the fact that an anonymous name called Sonam Gupta has beaten established, well known names like Vijay Mallya, Arnab Goswami and Sakshi Malik in the top 10 list of people searches.

This fact was revealed in the Google Year In Search 2016 list, which was announced by Google India yesterday.

If you have been living under a rock since last 12 months, then here is a quick brief about Sonam Gupta: In the month of August, a Rs 10 currency emerged, wherein a jilted lover had written: ‘Sonam Gupta Bewafa Hai’ (Sonam Gupta Is Unfaithful). This image quickly became viral, but the hype soon ended.

However, after the demonetization move by Indian Govt. in the month of November, this image resurfaced, taking India by storm. Right now, around 4.97 lakh search results are returned, when one searches ‘sonam gupta bewafa hai’.

Due to the virality of this term, Google has included Sonam Gupta as #3 most searched people on Google India this year. At #1 is Donald Trump, who defeated Hillary Clinton in the Presidential race, and at #2 is PV Sindhu, who became the first Indian woman to win an Olympic silver medal at Rio Olympics.

The top 10 list of most searched people on Google India

1. Donald Trump
2. P.V. Sindhu
3. Sonam Gupta
4. Dipa Karmakar
5. Disha Patani
6. Urvashi Rautela
7. Vijay Mallya
8. Pooja Hegde
9. Sakshi Malik
10. Arnab Goswami

Olympics Beat Cricket in India

When it comes to the most searched terms on Google India, then Rio Olympics 2016 was placed at #1, thereby beating the nearest cricket related term: Indian Premier League 2016, which is placed at #7.

Pokeman GO, the augmented reality game which took the world by storm, was placed at #2, while EURO 2016 was at #3. Bollywood makes its presence felt in the form of movie Sultan, which was 4th most searched term, followed by Kabali at #5.

Among gadgets, iPhone 7 was clearly dominant, as it is the only gadget in the top 10 search terms list.

Here are the top 10 searches on Google India this year:

1. Rio 2016 Olympics
2. Pokémon GO
3. EURO 2016
4. Sultan
5. Kabali
6. iPhone 7
7. Indian Premier League 2016
8. Donald Trump
9. Udta Punjab
10. P. V. Sindhu

Demonetization Loses Out To US Elections In Top News

One big surprise on the top 10 news related searches on Google India this year is the fact that the news of demonetization lost to US Elections, in terms of popularity. It happened maybe because demonetization kicked in early November, while US Elections was a hot topic since start of the year.

In the news as well, Rio Olympics was positioned on #1 spot, while US Elections was placed #2, followed by Brexit at #3. This means that Google India users heavily searched for foreign news on Google this year.

Here is the top 10 most searched news terms on Google India:

1. Rio 2016 Olympics
2. Pokémon GO
3. EURO 2016
4. Sultan
5. Kabali
6. iPhone 7
7. Indian Premier League 2016
8. Donald Trump
9. Udta Punjab
10. P. V. Sindhu

Among other searches, top searched movie was Salman Khan’s Sultan, followed by Rajnikanth’s Kabali at #2 and Anurag Kashqap’s Udta Punjab at #3. Akshay Kumar’s Airlift was ranked #4 while Ranbir Kapoor, Anushka Sharma starrer Ae Dil Hai Mushkil was ranked #5.

Special mention of Marathi movie Sairat, which was ranked #6, and thus, the only regional movie in this list (besides Superstar Rajnikanth’s Kabali).

Here are the top 10 searched movies:

1. Sultan
2. Kabali
3. Udta Punjab
4. Airlift
5. Ae Dil Hai Mushkil
6. Sanam Re
7. Sairat
8. Rustom
9. Conjuring 2
10. Housefull 3

Disha Patani, actress in bio MS Dhoni was the top searched Bollywood actress, while Sushant Singh Rajput, who played MS Dhoni in the same movie was the top searched Bollywood actor on Google India this year.

Here are the top 10 lists of most searched Bollywood actresses:

1. Disha Patani
2. Urvashi Rautela
3. Pooja Hegde
4. Mandana Karimi
5. Urmila Matondkar
6. Nimrat Kaur
7. Vaani Kapoor
8. Nora Fatehi
9. Kiara Advani
10. Saiyami Kher

and Here are the top 10 most searched Bollywood actors:

1. Sushant Singh Rajput
2. Kabir Bedi
3. Harshvardhan Kapoor
4. Pulkit Samrat
5. Salman Khan
6. Arshad Warsi
7. Sooraj Pancholi
8. Anupam Kher
9. Ranveer Singh
10. Vicky Kaushal

You can get the complete report here.