Salman, 52, cemented his place in the top spot thanks to the commercial success of his movies Tiger Zinda Hai and Race 3. His earnings were backed by endorsements of several consumer-facing brands and constitute 8% of the total earnings - Rs31 billion- of the top 100 celebrities for the year, read a statement from Forbes.
Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli jumped one spot to the second rank, with total earnings of Rs2.3 billion, a sharp increase of 116.5% from the previous year. Actor Akshay Kumar completed the top three, with Rs1.85 billion.
With no movie releases in 2017, Shah Rukh, who was at the second spot on the 2017 Forbes India Celebrity list, fell out of the top 10. His earnings were down 33%this year, at Rs560 million from endorsements, placing him at rank 13 on the list.
Newly-wed actor Deepika Padukone broke into the top five on the Forbes India Celebrity 100 list - the first woman celebrity to find place in the top five - with earnings of Rs1.1 billion, placing her firmly at rank four, thanks to the commercial success of Padmaavat and her brand endorsements.
Editor of Forbes India, Brian Carvalho said, "The Celebrity 100 is a definitive barometer of earnings of celebrities. Besides the earnings charts and cover stories on high-fliers like Sachin Tendulkar, Akshay Kumar and Deepika Padukone, we have also covered in the Celebrity 100 Special issue a whole new generation of celebrities - the unlikeliest of YouTube stars from the hinterland, a rapper from the Mumbai ghettos and an activist actor from Kerala taking on misogyny head-on in the testosterone driven Malayalam film industry."
The 2018 Forbes India Celebrity 100 List rankings are based on estimates of entertainment-related earnings of celebrities. The period under consideration is October 1, 2017 to September 30, 2018.
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