New Delhi: Shah Rukh Khan and Jr NTR have had a momentous 2023 in their respective careers. And when it’s time to take stock of the year that was, they are reaping the benefits.
Both have found a place in a list of the world’s 500 most influential people in showbusiness.
The annual list, compiled by popular American entertainment magazine Variety, features 10 Indians in all.
Shah Rukh and Jr NTR apart, also on the elite list are filmmakers Aditya Chopra and SS Rajamouli, producers Siddharth Roy Kapur, Ektaa Kapoor and Bhushan Kumar, industrialist and media company Viacom18 owner Mukesh Ambani, Red Sea Film Festival founder Shivani Pandya Malhotra and Sony Pictures CEO NP Singh.
Variety chooses the 500 personalities from those “who innovate, take risks, stimulate growth and make impactful moves that attract the attention of both consumers and industry professionals.”
Shah Rukh Khan
He has had a blockbuster year with two super-grossing films released earlier this year – ‘Pathaan’ and ‘Jawan’ – and a third one ‘Dunki’ just hitting the theatres.
“Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan made a roaring comeback in 2023 with the two biggest hits of the year – Pathaan and Jawan, the latter produced by Red Chillies Entertainment, the production company and VFX house he co-founded. In the process, the great romantic star of the modern era, known at home as ‘SRK’, the ‘King of Bollywood’ or simply ‘King Khan’, reinvented himself as an action hero,” Variety wrote.
Jr NTR
This southern star acted in the Oscar-winning ‘RRR’ and also made it to the Academy’s actors category.
“NTR Jr, as he is known, has the chameleon-like ability to slip into any role while maintaining the larger-than-life hero quality that is essential for mainstream Indian cinema success,” wrote Variety.
Aditya Chopra
Aditya Chopra, who heads Yash Raj Films, produced ‘Pathaan’ among several superhit films.
“Chopra led Yash Raj Films (YRF) to historic success in 2023 with the action thriller ‘Pathaan’, toplined by three of India’s biggest stars — Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone and John Abraham. The latest entry in the YRF spy universe — following ‘Tiger Zinda Hai’, ‘War’ and ‘Tiger 3’ — earned more than $126 million at the global box office, making it one of the highest-grossing Hindi films of all time,” Variety wrote about the camera-shy Chopra.
SS Rajamouli
Described by film trade analyst Komal Nahta as the ‘biggest Indian film director ever’, Rajamouli helmed ‘RRR’ which won an Oscar this year. He has directed 12 feature films so far, three of which — ‘Baahubali: The Beginning’ (2015), ‘Baahubali 2: The Conclusion’ (2017) and ‘RRR’ (2022) — are among the top six highest-grossing Indian films till date.
Siddharth Roy Kapur
Siddharth produced the critically-acclaimed series ‘Rocket Boys’ starring Jim Sarbh and Ishwak Singh.
“Earlier this year, he debuted season two of his acclaimed Hindi-language fact-based drama series ‘Rocket Boys’, about India’s efforts to become a nuclear power, which was carried by Indian streaming platform SonyLIV,” Variety stated about Siddharth, who is married to accomplished actress Vidya Balan.
Ektaa Kapoor
Jeetendra’s daughter, who has carved out an identity for herself, was bestowed with the prestigious International Emmy Directorate Award this year.
“When Kapoor accepted her International Emmy Directorate Award in November, becoming the first Indian woman to be so honoured, she recalled how she and her mother, Shobha Kapoor, started Balaji Telefilms from their garage in 1994 and were frequently referred to as ‘lady producers’,” was how Variety described Ektaa.
Bhushan Kumar
The son of T-Series founder Gulshan Kumar, Bhushan is described as the ‘youngest Kumar’ who took over the business at age of 19 and took it to its current level.
“Some of India’s 2022 and 2023 box-office hits, including ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2’, ’Drishyam 2’ and ‘Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar’, bear the T-Series banner, and a 100-film slate is on tap for the next three years, with anticipated 2024 titles ‘The Diplomat’, ‘Metro in Dino’ and the third film in ‘Aashiqui’ franchise leading the way. Additionally, T-Series has been diversifying into both producing series for streamers and deepening its already wide music footprint in India,” Variety wrote about Bhushan, whose latest production ‘Animal’ is making waves in the box office.
Mukesh Ambani
The man who hardly needs an introduction has been described by Variety in these words: “The world’s 11th-richest person according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Ambani has a net worth of $88.1 billion. He chairs India’s Reliance Industries, with a market cap of $190 billion and interests in petrochemicals, telecom and retail.”
Shivani Pandya Malhotra
She built the Red Sea International Film Festival “from scratch in the ancient city of Jeddah, located in Dubai, a country that had only recently lifted a 35-year ban on commercial movie theatres.. In its second year, the fest hosted nearly 40,000 filmgoers and 4,345 film professionals over 10 days in December 2022 and boasted a jury hosted by Oliver Stone,” Variety wrote.
NP Singh
As Variety pointed out, “Singh spent two years fighting to win regulatory approval of the merger of his Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI) with rival Zee Entertainment while continuing to grow its preexisting properties, such as its VOD platform SonyLIV (India’s third-ranked streaming service, with more than 38 million subscribers), SET (the country’s third most subscribed TV channel) and SET India (the world’s fourth most popular YouTube channel in terms of subscribers, at 165 million).”
