Varun Dhawan only u-30 male star on 'Most Talked About Gen-Next Celebs' list

Varun Dhawan

Varun Dhawan

Twenty nine-year-old Varun Dhawan has become the only actor under the age of 30 to feature on Twitter's 'most talked about male celebrities' list. In information, titled 'Year in Bollywood', shared exclusively with hitlist by the social networking platform, Varun ranked third on the list, which was crafted on the basis of the number of conversations on a celebrity's account handle. Varun, who lost to industry biggies including Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan, surprisingly outshone actors Akshay Kumar and Amitabh Bachchan.

The actor's 'Badrinath Ki Dulhania' co-star Alia Bhatt, too, bagged the coveted second spot on the same list that had female celebrities, losing only to the now-global icon Priyanka Chopra. In fact, the young duo topped the charts of the 'most talked about Gen-Next celebrities' with Varun bagging a 36 per cent share of the total conversations around the top five celebrities, and Alia getting 26 per cent. The actor was also the only male to feature on this list, which included Anushka Sharma, Shraddha Kapoor and Parineeti Chopra.

While the gen-next stars gained a strong foothold among the biggies of the industry, veteran actor Amitabh Bachchan, with 24.1 million followers, is still the most followed star on Twitter, with the three Khans securing positions after him. Though her international debut, xXx: Return of Xander Cage, is yet to hit screens, Deepika Padukone trumped PeeCee with a whopping one million additional followers, securing 16.9 million to the latter's 15.8 million.

Alia Bhatt, Anushka Sharma, Shraddha Kapoor and Parineeti Chopra

Over the past few years, Twitter, along with Facebook, have turned out to be the ideal platform for Bollywood celebrities to interact directly with audiences. It is also increasingly being used to shore up recall value for upcoming films.

Content driven movies, including Abhishek Chaubey's drugs-drama Udta Punjab and Gauri Shinde's Dear Zindagi, which touched on mental health concerns, Salman's wrestling-drama, Sultan and Ajay Devgn's actioner, Shivaay, sparked the most interest of Twitterati to make it to the top five of the 'most talked about films' on the platform. The only rom-com to feature on the list was Karan Johar's Ranbir Kapoor-starrer Ae Dil Hai Mushkil.

Twitter users' admiration for actor Akshay Kumar's video in support of Indian soldiers following the debate on the ban on Pakistani actors in Bollywood in October made it as the most watched video by a male celebrity on the platform, while Madhuri Dixit Nene's dubsmash video celebrating 14 years of Devdas was the top performing video by a female celebrity. Well, well, she featured alongside Twitter's blue-eyed boy Varun.

Most talked about Gen-Next celebs (under 30)
1. Varun Dhawan
2. Alia Bhatt
3. Anushka Sharma
4. Shraddha Kapoor
5. Parineeti Chopra

Most talked about male celebs
1. Shah Rukh Khan
2. Salman Khan
3. Varun Dhawan
4. Akshay Kumar
5. Amitabh Bachchan
(Hrithik Roshan, Sidharth Malhotra, Karan Johar, Ajay Devgn and Ranveer Singh were also among the top 10 most spoken about male celebrities of 2016)