Salman Khan is the richest Indian celebrity

The 2018 Forbes India Celebrity 100 List rankings are based on estimates of entertainment-related earnings of celebrities. The number of Bollywood actors is down from 33 to 31, despite their cumulative earnings increasing by 12.89 percent from the previous year.

On the back of ₹253.25 crore earned through his film releases, television appearances and brand endorsements between October 1, 2017, and September 30, 2018, the 52-year-old actor became India's highest-paid celebrity on the list for the third consecutive year.

Meanwhile, Salman Khan stayed at the top position, for the third year in a row, with earnings of Rs 253.25 crore, while Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli came second and Akshay Kumar stood third, raking in Rs 228.09 crore and Rs 185 crore respectively. While Tiger Zinda Hai set new box office records and collected over Rs 300 crore, Race 3 stopped after scraping past Rs 100 crore. Akshay recently starred in Rajinikanth's 2.0, who also features on the list (more on that later). Actor Priyanka Chopra, who was in the seventh place last year with Rs 68 crore earnings, slipped down to 49th this year. Mahendra Singh Dhoni, is at the fifth place with Rs 101.77 crore.

Hardik Pandya turned out to be a huge gainer on the list of sportspersons, as he bagged Rs 28.46 crores in 2018 as compared to Rs 3.04 crores a year ago.

Bollywood diva, Deepika Padukone bagged fourth position with the earnings of Rs. 114crore for Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Padmaavat.

A total of 15 celebrities from the south Indian film industry made it to the list, with Kollywood contributing eight actors. Deepika Padukone occupies the spot with Rs 112.