5 Takeaways From Twitter’s Report On The Top Entertainment Tweets In India

Twitter India's year-end report, #ThisHappened2020, outlines the top entertainment tweets from January 1 to November 15, 2020. The ranking is based on the total number of likes, retweets, and quote tweets from unique authors.

This is an especially useful report this year, when so much content has premiered digitally, and its success is thus being gauged on the basis of the conversation generated around it. While the Twitter conversation around films and web-series does not necessarily translate to engagement with content, this is nevertheless a useful primer to see what has piqued people's interest, or in some cases, people's anger. Following are some of the highlights from the report. 

1) Dil Bechara, released on Disney+Hotstar for free in the aftermath of Sushant Singh Rajput's death by suicide, was the most tweeted about Hindi film this year. Dil Bechara was followed by the Deepika Padukone starrer Chhapaak, Ajay Devgn's 100th film Tanhaji- The Unsung Warrior, Taapsee Pannu starrer Thappad, and Janhvi Kapoor's Gunjan Saxena. It is of note that 3 of these top 5 films are helmed by actresses. It must also be noted that both Chhapaak and Gunjan Saxena were heavily trolled films, the former because of Padukone's stand against the JNU violence in January, and the latter for the riled up discussion around nepotism. 

2) Mirzapur 2, on Amazon Prime starring Pankaj Tripathi, was the most tweeted about web-series of 2020 in India. This was followed by Money Heist on Netflix, and Aarya on Disney+Hotstar, Sushmita Sen's much celebrated return to the screen. 

3) The Twitter report makes a distinction between web-series and TV shows, the former attached to streaming platforms primarily, while the latter attached to television channels primarily. Season 13 and 14 of Bigg Boss, on Colors TV, the reality show hosted by Salman Khan, was the most tweeted about TV show in India, followed by Naagin 4 on Colors TV and Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai, the fourth longest running Indian soap opera, playing on Star Plus. 

4) While Vijay's selfie with his fans in Neyveli from February 2020 was the most retweeted tweet in Indian entertainment, Amitabh Bachchan sharing his diagnosis of testing positive for COVID-19, while also spreading awareness about the virus, was the most liked and quote tweeted tweet in Indian entertainment.

5) Chadwick Boseman's demise, shared on his personal twitter account, was the most retweeted, quoted tweeted, and liked tweet of global entertainment in India.