DREAM CONTENT

We LIVE IN a world where entertainment is our bugbear and our salvation.

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The Indian entertainment industry is now a colossal beast, producing more movies and showsand in a multitude of languages-than any other across the world. But at a time when so much online flotsam is coming our way, who will be the arbiter of what is good taste, what is a mustwatch, what will leave us wanting more? Some of the people in the high chairs deciding our nocturnal forays are featured in our list, such as Netflix's Monika Shergill who has made sure that Indian shows are never off the global hits charts on the OTT channel. Or Jyoti Deshpande of Reliance-backed Jio Studios, whose impact in so short a time was only reinforced by the colossal success of their horror comedy sequel, Stree 2.

Of course, this is not to say Bollywood's cinema royalty have given way. Badshah Shah Rukh Khan is still No. 1, his status further embellished by the fact of being in the list of richest actors in the world, while actresses like Deepika Padukone and Alia Bhatt make confident strides across the world, doing Hollywood projects and being global ambassadors of the choicest brands. A new entrant in our list is the soulful singer-actor Diljit Dosanjh, who has made Punjabi music a universal phenomenon and now routinely sells out stadiums even in places like London. Scalpers were allegedly selling back row tickets to his Dil-Luminati concert in Delhi for an unheard of Rs 20,000, a sign of how wildly popular the turbaned singer is and also perhaps of our FOMO-ridden times.

1 SHAH RUKH KHAN, 58 Actor-producer

SHAH OF ALL SHAHS