Malayalam actor Priya Prakash Varrier, who shot to fame following her 'wink song' 'Manikya Malaraya Poovi...' from the film 'Oru Adaar Love' has become the most searched personality of the year, Google India said on Wednesday. She currently has over 6.2 million followers on Instagram, and over 6.7 lakh followers on Facebook. The popularity, which began with just a wink, now has her endorsing various Indian and global brands such as OnePlus smartphones, South India shopping mall, Wonderla, and various apparel and jewelry brands as well.
The Malayalam actor was followed by Priyanka Chopra's spouse Nick Jonas in the list of most searched personalities. Priyanka herself was the fourth most searched personality on Google.
The second and fifth positions went to dance performer Sapna Choudhary and actor Sonam Kapoor's husband Anand Ahuja respectively.
The interest in royal weddings spiked as American actor turned Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle also figured in the list of most-searched-for personalities from India, Google revealed in its "Year in Search" results.
The top five search terms centred around "How to.." were - how to send stickers on Whatsapp, how to link Aadhaar with mobile number, how to make rangoli, how to port mobile number and how to invest in bitcoin.
Some of the interesting search terms centred around "What is..." were - what is section 377, what is happening in Syria, what is kiki challenge, what is me too campaign, what is ball tampering.
This year, sports and entertainment dominated the top trending charts with queries around FIFA World Cup 2018 leading the pack followed by the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Interestingly, football swept cricket in the overall search listing, with queries around the Football World Cup topping those around the cricketing action during the IPL season.
During the Karnataka polls, queries around the Karnataka state elections soared to mark its presence among the top trending queries, while Big Boss turned out to be the top choice when it came to entertainment this year, surpassing queries related to the Rajinikanth/Akshay blockbuster 'Robot 2.0'.
On the cinema front, the Bollywood blockbusters overshadowed Hollywood in the search lists, with 'Robot 2.0' taking the top spot, followed by 'Baaghi 2' and 'Race 3'.
The three Hollywood entries in the list happened to be from Marvel Studios: 'Avengers: Infinity War', 'Black Panther' and 'Deadpool 2'.
The songs that ruled the roost included Neha Kakkar's 'Dilbar Dilbar', Arijit Singh's 'Tera Fitoor' and Atif Aslam's 'Dekhte Dekhte' from Bollywood.
Interestingly, the lone English entrant was the ever popular Latin hit song 'Despacito', which also happened to make it to the 'Year in Search' list last year.
Celebrity weddings made big waves this year as fans scoured the web in search of the latest buzz on their favourite celeb marriages.
The three weddings that figured prominently included Priyanka Chopra/Nick Jonas, Deepika Padukone/Ranveer Singh and Sonam Kapoor/Anand Ahuja.
Other news events that grabbed attention included queries around the world's largest statue, the Statue of Unity, unveiled in Gujarat earlier this year.
Rounding off the list was a span of news topics including the striking down of Section 377, the union budget, bitcoin, as well as the Nipah virus.