Virat Kohli is India's most famous celebrity in the Forbes list released for the year 2016
The year 2016 has been an eventful one for Virat Kohli. The 28-year-old right-hander has been the lynchpin of the Indian batting line-up across all three formats of the game and is the only cricketer to have an average in excess of 50 in Test, 50 over and T20I format of the game.
Hence, it comes as no surprise that the Delhiite has surpassed all the other popular names in the Forbes list for the most famous Indian celebrity of 2016, going past bigwigs like Salman Khan, MS Dhoni, Shah Rukh Khan among others.
Dhoni found himself at the 4th position on the list while Indian batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar is 6th on the list. 2011 World Player of the Tournament winner Yuvraj Singh found himself 17th on the list while World Record holder for the highest ODI score Rohit Sharma was one place above him at 16th.
On the list for the celebrities with the highest earnings in 2016, Kohli was fourth in the table with Rs. 134.4 crores, while Dhoni found himself at the fifth position. Salman led this list with Rs. 270.42 crores.
Kohli has had a prolific year with the bat, having made 1215 runs in the Test format, 739 runs in ODIs and 641 runs in the T20I format. The right-hander also had a sensational season of the Indian Premier League where he made 973 runs, including four centuries.
He also led India in 9 Test wins in 2016 and surpassed Sunil Gavaskar’s tally for the Indian captain to remain undefeated in the most number of consecutive Test matches at 18.
List for the most famous Indian celebrities of 2016
| Name | Rank |
| Virat Kohli | 1 |
| Salman Khan | 2 |
| Shah Rukh Khan | 3 |
| MS Dhoni | 4 |
| Amitabh Bachchan | 5 |
| Sachin Tendulkar | 6 |
| Kapil Sharma | 7 |
| Deepika Padukone | 8 |
| Priyanka Chopra | 9 |
| Aamir Khan | 10 |
The richest Indian celebrities of 2016
| Name | Rank | Amount |
| Salman Khan | 1 | Rs.270.33 crore |
| Shah Rukh Khan | 2 | Rs.221.75 crore |
| Akshay Kumar | 3 | Rs. 203.3 crore |
| Virat Kohli | 4 | Rs.134.44 crore |
| MS Dhoni | 5 | Rs.122.48 crore |