Tamil actor Suriya dominates the south film industry and has been ranked as the top celebrity in South India.
The actor, known for films like Soorarai Pottru and Jai Bhim, emerged as the most trusted, identified, attractive, respected and the one with the highest appeal, according to research conducted by Indian Institute of Human Brands (IIHB).
The research covered six celebrities from Tollywood and Kollywood each, four from Mollywood and two from Sandalwood, who were checked out on 64 active attributes covering image, personality and human factors and were given TIARA score, which is based on trust, identifiability, attractiveness, respect, and appeal.
Overall 5,246 respondents were surveyed covering 18 celebrities from the South across four states.
“Suriya's scores eclipse all his contemporaries and peers. None of the other Southern stars come even close to Suriya on most parameters in the research,” said Sandeep Goyal, Chief Mentor of IIHB.
The actor emerged as the most trustworthy, followed by Allu Arjun of Pushpa fame and Vijay Devarakonda. Suriya topped the list of most identified celebrities, followed by Prabhas and Ram Charan of RRR fame.
On the list of most attractive south celebrities, Suriya was ahead of Allu Arjun and Vijay Devarakonda.
South stars have found a market among mainstream Bollywood cine-goers and have also seen box-office success. The recent success of RRR making Rs 1,200 crore is a testament to this new glory, the report said.
"Films like Pushpa have found pan-India appeal. Not only do the four industries down south have enormous star stature, but they are also serving up some truly groundbreaking content," added the report.
In 2022, the share of Bollywood fell from 52 percent to 40 percent while the South cinema climbed from 40 percent to 52 percent.
Telegu cinema’s share which used to be 14 percent in 2009, stood at 22 percent in 2019. Tamil cinema’s share rose from 13 percent to 18 percent during the same time frame. The share of Kannada cinema has grown from 4.5 percent to 9 percent and Malayalam films' share has gone up from 4 percent to 6 percent.
In the overall pie of Indian cinema, the share of South cinema has grown by nearly 50 percent, the report added.