Neeraj Chopra tops Personalities in Google’s ‘Year in Search’ 2021

Olympic gold medallist Neeraj Chopra has topped Google India’s most-searched-for-personalities in its 2021 ‘Year in Search’.

Neeraj’s appearance in the list comes as no surprise given that sports dominate Google searches in India.

This includes the Indian Premier League, Euro 2020 and the Tokyo Olympics.

Neeraj made headlines during the Olympics when he won the gold medal in the javelin throw.

His win saw him become the first Indian Olympian to win a gold medal in athletics and the first post-independence Indian Olympic medalist in athletics.

Neeraj topped the list ahead of Aryan Khan and Shehnaaz Gill.

The son of Shah Rukh Khan, Aryan, appeared in second place due to his run-in with the law.

Aryan was arrested in a drugs case following a raid on a cruise ship.

He along with several others were arrested in October 2021. Aryan was accused of being involved in the procurement of drugs.

Despite denying the allegations, Aryan was detained for more than three weeks, before eventually being granted bail.

Shehnaaz Gill occupied third place on the ‘Year in Search’ after appearing in several music videos.

She is also coming off the success of the Punjabi comedy film Honsla Rakh, in which she starred opposite Diljit Dosanjh.

However, Shehnaaz’s interest on Google peaked in September 2021 following the sudden death of her rumoured boyfriend Sidharth Shukla.

The pair appeared together on Bigg Boss 13 and were extremely close.

His tragic death led to Shehnaaz releasing a tribute song.

Raj Kundra took fifth place for the wrong reasons.

The husband of Shilpa Shetty was arrested over allegations that he was producing and distributing pornography through a mobile app.

Raj was arrested in July 2021 and it saw a number of accusations made against him.

He was booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code, the Information Technology Act and the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act. He is currently out on bail.

Perhaps a surprising name on Google India’s most-searched-for-personalities was Elon Musk.

Appearing higher than Vicky Kaushal and PV Sindhu, the Tesla boss made a lot of headlines with his cryptic tweets about cryptocurrencies, mainly about Dogecoin.

Elon Musk’s tweets were a major reason behind the crypto rally in the first half of 2021.

Vicky Kaushal was trending for both professional and personal reasons.

After coming off the release of Sardar Udham, he announced his next project, titled Govinda Naam Mera.

The film also stars Bhumi Pednekar and Kiara Advani.

He also tied the knot with Katrina Kaif in a lavish ceremony at the Six Senses Fort Barwara in Rajasthan.

Here are the top-searched personalities in India:

1. Neeraj Chopra
2. Aryan Khan
3. Shehnaaz Gill
4. Raj Kundra
5. Elon Musk
6. Vicky Kaushal
7. PV Sindhu
8. Bajrang Punia
9. Sushil Kumar
10. Natasha Dalal

Indian Google users also searched for films such as Jai Bhim, Shershaah and Radhe.

Searches about Covid-19 dominated Google’s ‘How to’ category.

Some of the searches included ‘How to register for a Covid vaccine’, ‘How to download a vaccination certificate’ and ‘How to increase oxygen levels’.