Baahubali 2 most googled in 2017 in India

As is the norm, movies and cricket ruled the roost this year as well given India’s obsession with both trends, but given the massive impact the jallikattu protests in Tamil Nadu had in January, the phenomenon finds its place on one of the lists with several users searching ‘What is jallikattu?’ The south Indian epic sequel Baahubali 2 finds pride of place in Top Trending Queries overall, with the SSRajamouli-directed blockbuster movie in first place, followed by the India Premier League and popular Hindi movies such as Dangal and Half-Girlfriend.

The entertainers list is dominated by names from the Bollywood film industry and Bigg Boss (Hindi) with only Chennai-origin YouTube singer Vidya Vox and Tollywood actor Rana Daggubati as the southern representatives – actress Sunny Leone tops the category. The music list stars the likes of Hindi tracks ‘Hawa Hawa’ and ‘Mere Rashke Qamar’, with viral numbers like Ed Sheeran’s ‘Shape of You’ and Luis Fonsi’s ‘Despacito’ also making the cut.

Other notable searches include several items that dominated conversations across the country like GST and users Googling on how to file returns - and more recently, the bitcoin craze with many looking up how to invest in the cryptocurrency, even mine it and benefit from the same.

The Union Budget, UP election results and CBSE results are all part of trending news, while India’s historic win at the Miss World ceremony, which propelled Manushi Chhillar to fame, is also present.

The top trending ‘How to’ searches also threw up some surprising results with netizens asking Google how to remove Holi powder from their faces, apart from queries on linking Aadhaar card with the PAN card, and booking a Jio phone.