Forbes Top 100 Indian Celebrity List: While Virat Kohli tops list among sportspersons, many other stars missing

Business magazine Forbes India just came out with its top 100 Celebrity List for the year of 2016, and it was Indian test cricket team, Virat Kohli who emerged as the highest ranked sportsperson on the prestigious list.

Having enjoyed an incredible year with his unbeaten run as the Test skipper and on a personal note as well, raking up the runs with his bat and averaging almost 70 in all formats of the game, ensured that the Delhi batsman finished on third spot in the overall rankings behind Bollywood actors Salman and Shahrukh Khan.

Alongside him, many of the current members of the Indian cricket team made the cut. Other notable personalities included limited overs captain MS Dhoni who was the fifth famous celebrity and the legendary Sachin Tendulkar who came in seventh.

Among non-cricketers, it was tennis poster girl Sania Mirza, who was 28^th on the list in terms of popularity while badminton star, Saina Nehwal was not too far behind, on the 31^st spot.

However, what was concerning was the absence of a host of stars from other sports. These include the likes of Dipa Karmakar, the torch-bearer of Indian gymnastics, who missed out on a medal at the Rio Olympics by a very small margin and Vijender Singh, who turned pro and has had an unbeaten run so far in his career, recently defeating Francis Cheka.

The other shocking name which did not feature on the list was that of Indian footballer Sunil Chhetri!

The list was prepared by Forbes India after taking into account independent estimates on several factors from varied sources which included- industry insiders, talent management agencies, sports consultants, advertising agencies, brand marketers, celebrity managers and a team of experts.

In order to evaluate their fame, Forbes measured their visibility in the traditional media (print and television) and computed their reach on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

The entire list of sportspersons from Forbes Celebrity list 2016 India:

Ranking	Name	Sports	Net worth (in crore)
3	Virat Kohli	Cricket	134.44
5	MS Dhoni	Cricket	122.48
7	Sachin Tendulkar	Cricket	58
16	Rohit Sharma	Cricket	24.17
17	Yuvraj Singh	Cricket	16
23	Shikhar Dhawan	Cricket	17.73
26	Suresh Raina	Cricket	12.21
27	R Ashwin	Cricket	15.55
29	Sania Mirza	Tennis	14.58
31	Saina Nehwal	Badminton	20.18
34	Ajinkya Rahane	Cricket	11.68
35	Ravindra Jadeja	Cricket	7.53
39	Gautam Gambhir	Cricket	11.69
41	Virender Sehwag	Cricket	2.95
44	Harbhajan Singh	Cricket	10.29
62	PV Sindhu	Badminton	3.42
65	Anil Kumble	Cricket	7.55
80	Sakshi Malik	Wrestling	0.3
85	Leander Paes	Tennis	1.78
88	Mary Kom	Boxing	2.85
89	Anirban Lahiri	Golf	12.85