This week, Google released its global and country-specific lists of the top trends in online search data for 2017. In India, showbiz and cricket dominated as usual.
But it wasn’t a regular Hindi Bollywood film that topped the
country's list of most-searched items this year. It was a South Indian
fantasy-action blockbuster, Baahubali 2. Among
India’s most expensive movies ever made, it was shot as a bilingual
release in Telugu and Tamil, but only dubbed in Hindi. Still, it
managed to traverse India’s language boundaries, breaking multiple box
office records. In fact, Baahubali 2 garnered so much interest that it
also found a place in the top 10 of Google’s global trend list under
movies.
Royal Challengers Bangalore team captain
and fielder Virat Kohli throws a ball towards his wicketkeeper Vishnu
Vinod (R) during the a 2017 Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 cricket
match. (Photo credit: SAJJAD HUSSAIN/AFP/Getty Images)
Second in overall searches in India was IPL, the country’s premier cricket tournament and its most popular sport event. It was followed on the list by “live cricket score” in third. Interestingly, “India National Cricket Team” was the only India-centric topic to make it to Google’s global top 10 this year.
Next came Amir Khan’s massive hit film Dangal, fourth overall on the India list, followed by five other Bollywood movies, and another cricket tournament.
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Yet again, Indo-Canadian porn-star-turned-Bollywood-actress Sunny Leone topped the list of most-searched entertainers in India (she has topped the list for over 5 years now, ever since she first participated in Indian reality show Bigg Boss in 2011). This year, she was followed by several 2017 Bigg Boss participants. All of the top five most-searched entertainers in India this year were women.
Bollywood star Sunny Leone in May 2015. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)
Beyond entertainment and sports
Beyond movies and sport, major events in India's current affairs landscape also trended. India saw several significant policy overhauls under the Modi government this year, including the new Goods and Service Tax (GST), which was the top searched phrase under the ‘What is’ category.
Another new policy that was billed as a game changer by officials but caused significant confusion to everyday Indians this year was the requirement that every citizen link their Permanent Account Number (PAN) issued by the Indian Income Tax Department with their Aadhar Card, a unique biometric ID issued under a program by the ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. "How to link Aadhaar and PAN" was the most searched item under the "how to" category in India.
Other key phrases in the same category included “how to book Jio phone.” Jio is the new cell phone service provider launched by India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani’s conglomerate, Reliance. Offering Indians virtually free mobile plans as an incentive to sign up, it created havoc for competitors.
“What is bitcoin” and “how to buy Bitcoins” both trended too, indicating that India, like much of the rest of the world, is currently fascinated by cryptocurrency.
Related reading on Forbes: Why India's Bitcoin Scene Is Thriving Despite A Cold Shoulder From The Central Bank
Among the events that trended under news were the UP elections, where India’s ruling party, the BJP, enjoyed a landslide victory in the country's most populous state, Uttar Pradesh. “Miss World Ceremony” also trended given that this year’s winner was an Indian woman, Manushi Chillar.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at
the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) headquarters where he delivered a
victory speech in New Delhi on March 12, 2017, after legislative
assembly elections in five Indian states. (Photo credit: PRAKASH
SINGH/AFP/Getty Images)
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