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How This 19-year-old Actress Topped Google India's 2018 Trends List with a Wink The overnight internet sensation has left behind the world's biggest celebs

By Komal Nathani

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Amid the likes of celebs Priyanka Chopra, Nick Jonas, Anand Ahuja and Meghan Markle, the one who tops the Google India's most searched list of 2018 is 19-year-old South Indian actress, Priya Prakash Varrier.

Google released the top search trends of this year, which showed India's most favourite topics and personalities that people want to know about. Broken down into several categories, the list showed what Indians are searching in What is.., How to… categories along with personalities, movies and songs list.

The overnight internet sensation Varrier has even left behind the world's biggest celebs in the top trending list of this year. Varrier's wink video smote the social media when her Malayalam film's teaser video went viral on social media.

The Manikya Malaraya Poorvi, featuring Priya Prakash Varrier, shows the actress dressed in school uniform, winking at a fellow student, who is instantly floored by her. The video sent the entire Internet into a meltdown and it has over 83 million views on YouTube as of now.

She became the third celebrity in the world to get more than 600k followers on Instagram in a day. The Indian teen actor was close to beat television star Kylie Jenner who garnered more than 806k followers on Instagram in 24 hours and football champion Christiano Ronaldo who broke the internet garnering 650K followers on Instagram in a day.

While2018 FIFA World Cup, Indian Premier League (IPL) and Karnataka Assembly Elections were in the overall list, "What is.." category trended with topics like what is section 377, what is happening in Syria, and everyone's favourite what is Kiki challenge.

In terms of Bollywood's top search movies, the highest collection maker Robot 2.0 held the first position in the list, which stars South Indian actor Rajnikanth and Bollywood Khiladi Akshay Kumar. Other tops films of the year, Baaghi 2, Race 3, Avengers Infinity War and Tiger Zinda Hai followed the top five list.

Another list of top 10 searches in the "How To" category had queries related to How to invest in bitcoin, how to send stickers on WhatsApp, how to link aadhaar with mobile number and how to make rangoli.

The one name which was amiss this year compared to the previous year's trends list is Sunny Leone, Bollywood actress.

Needless to say, the list was dominated by the names of the Bollywood and Hollywood celebs that got married this year. Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh, Nick Jonas, Priyanka Chopra, Sonam Kapoor and Anand Ahuja are a few to name.

Komal Nathani

Former Correspondent, Entrepreneur Asia Pacific

A firm believer of hard work and patience. Love to cover stories that hold a potential to change the momentum of business world. Currently, a part of all-women web team of Entrepreneur’s Asia Pacific edition to jig the wheel of business journalism!

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