What was trending: Yahoo India Year in Review 2019

What do Mamata Banerjee and Smriti Irani have in common? Who was the only non-cricketer among the top searched sports personalities of the year? Yahoo India today announced the 2019 Year in Review (YIR*) for India, with answers to these questions and everything else that grabbed the attention of internet users in India during the year. Yahoo India’s YIR 2019 offers a definitive look at the year’s top trends, happenings and events, based on users’ daily search habits and an editorial selection of what they read, recommended and shared most on Yahoo.

Year in Review: The lowdown on the biggest movers and shakers online in 2019

2019 Personality of the Year: Five SC judges who delivered historic Ayodhya verdict

In a year of landmark judgements, a five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court (SC) delivered a ‘historic’ verdict in the Ayodhya case. The SC Bench – comprising Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde, Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice Ashok Bhushan and Justice S Abdul Nazeer – laid to rest this century-old dispute and emerged as YIR’s ‘Personality of the Year.’

PM Modi joined by surprise entrant on ‘Most Searched Personality’ list

On the back of a landslide victory in the Indian General Elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was this year’s Most Searched Personality – a position he also held in 2018. Celebrities such as cricketer MS Dhoni and actor Priyanka Chopra Jonas joined PM Modi on this list, along with a surprise entrant. Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman broke into the top 10 as Indians tracked his dramatic capture and release online. Veteran BJP leader Arun Jaitley’s untimely death was mourned by Indians of every political hue, who honored him with a place on this list.

Mamata Didi is one of India’s top-searched politicians and most powerful women!

PM Modi topped the list of Most Searched Politicians of 2019, with Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee claiming the No. 2 spot, edging out Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who had to settle for the No. 3 position. Didi was front and center in another category this year – the debut list of Most Powerful Women of 2019. Political heavyweights Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Mamata Banerjee and Union Minister Smriti Irani were India’s top 3 most powerful women in 2019. Sports champions Harmanpreet Kaur and PV Sindhu also found a place on the list, with filmmaker Zoya Akhtar, whose film Gully Boy is headed for the Oscars, rounding off the top 10.

Salman and Sunny remain unbeaten as Most Searched Male and Female Celebs

Salman Khan flexed his muscles at the top yet again, as Most Searched Male Celebrity of 2019, with social media favorite actors Amitabh Bachchan and Akshay Kumar making up the top 3. Fans also bid goodbye to thespian Girish Karnad, who passed away in 2019, giving him a place in the top 10. Actress Sunny Leone was once again Most Searched Female Celebrity of 2019 – a position she has held through most of the decade, pushing actresses Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Deepika Padukone lower down this list.

Hrithik Vs No One! Indians loved War star’s style quotient

Bollywood has always supplied YIR with style icons and this year was no different. Hrithik Roshan, stylish in the blockbuster War and offscreen too, was matched by relative newbie Sara Ali Khan, who impressed netizens with her unique style statements. Respectively, they were YIR’s Male and Female Style Icons of 2019. (Also see who blazed on the red carpet this year in the ‘Top 10 lists’ shared below!)

Start-up founders rub shoulders with big guns as top business newsmakers

India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani predictably was the Top Business Newsmaker of 2019. The No. 2 spot went to Gautam Adani, who zoomed to No. 2 on this list – he made online India sit up when he jumped eight spots to become Forbes’ second-richest Indian in 2019. Start-up founders like Nykaa’s Falguni Nayar, Paytm’s Vijay Shekhar Sharma and OYO’s Ritesh Agarwal, reinforced that this is a new India, by claiming their place on this list.

PV Sindhu elbows her way into this cricket-dominated list...

Cricketer MS Dhoni was the Most Searched Sports personality of 2019. Fans’ obsession with the ‘will he, won’t he’ speculation over Dhoni’s retirement kept him in the spotlight online. While cricketers Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli completed the top 3, shuttler PV Sindhu was the only non-cricketer who grabbed a spot on this list.

See ‘Top 10 lists’ from the Year in Review 2019

Most Searched Personality 2019

1) PM Narendra Modi

2) MS Dhoni

3) Sunny Leone

4) Priyanka Chopra Jonas

5) Mamata Banerjee

6) Rahul Gandhi

7) Abhinandan Varthaman

8) Arun Jaitley

9) Priyanka Gandhi

10) P Chidambaram

Most Searched Politicians of 2019

1) PM Narendra Modi

2) Mamata Banerjee

3) Rahul Gandhi

4) Arun Jaitley

5) Priyanka Gandhi

6) P Chidambaram

7) Amit Shah

8) Nirmala Sitharaman

9) Navjot Singh Sidhu

10) YS Jaganmohan Reddy

Most Powerful Women of 2019

1) Nirmala Sitharaman

2) Mamata Banerjee

3) Smriti Irani

4) Priyanka Chopra Jonas

5) Harmanpreet Kaur

6) PV Sindhu

7) Nita Ambani

8) Zoya Akhtar

9) Sonia Gandhi

10) Falguni Nayar

Most Searched Female Celebrities

1) Sunny Leone

2) Priyanka Chopra Jonas

3) Rakhi Sawant

4) Deepika Padukone

5) Katrina Kaif

6) Sara Ali Khan

7) Disha Patani

8) Ileana D’Cruz

9) Aishwarya Rai Bachchan

10) Priya Prakash Warrier

Most Searched Male Celebrities

1) Salman Khan

2) Amitabh Bachchan

3) Akshay Kumar

4) Guru Randhawa

5) Sunny Deol

6) Rishi Kapoor

7) Ravish Kumar

8) Kapil Sharma

9) Vicky Kaushal

10) Girish Karnad

Best Dressed on the Red Carpet 2019 - Female

1) Katrina Kaif

2) Deepika Padukone

3) Alia Bhatt

4) Malaika Arora

5) Sara Ali Khan

6) Kareena Kapoor

7) Mira Kapur

8) Jahnvi Kapoor

9) Sonam Kapoor

10) Bhumi Pednekar

Best Dressed on the Red Carpet 2019 - Male

1) Shahid Kapoor

2) Ayushmann Khurrana

3) Ranveer Singh

4) Karan Johar

5) Hrithik Roshan

6) Vicky Kaushal

7) Anil Kapoor

8) Shahrukh Khan

9) Sidharth Malhotra

10) Riteish Deshmukh

Top Business Newsmakers of 2019

1) Mukesh Ambani

2) Gautam Adani

3) Anand Mahindra

4) Azim Premji

5) Ritesh Agarwal

6) Kumar Mangalam Birla

7) Vijay Shekhar Sharma

8) Falguni Nayar

9) Chanda Kochhar

10) Anil Ambani

Most Searched Sports Personality

1) MS Dhoni

2) Rohit Sharma

3) Virat Kohli

4) Yuvraj Singh

5) Rishabh Pant

6) Sourav Ganguly

7) Hardik Pandya

8) PV Sindhu

9) Ravindra Jadeja

10) Mithali Raj

Yahoo India also shared Decade in Review where they mentioned trending searches between 2010 to 2019.