The independent musician worked on films like The Archies and Kho Gaye Hum Kahan, both on Netflix, in 2024. He is the creative music architect and producer of Coke Studio Bharat. He joined hands with film directors and writers Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti to launch Tiger Baby Records, a music label with a focus on telling compelling stories from the world of audio.
Image: Mexy XavierThe 24-year-old singer, songwriter and guitarist from Ludhiana rose to fame when his first studio release ‘Baarishein’ garnered a huge following. Known for hits like ‘Husn’, ‘Gul’ and ‘Alag Aasmaan’, among others, Jain has been selling out shows for his ongoing India tour. His 2024 release ‘Jo Tum Mere Ho’ was a big success.
He took the top spot as the most streamed artiste on Spotify Wrapped 2024 in the country for the fourth consecutive year. Some of his most streamed songs this year include ‘Satranga’ (Animal), ‘Sajni’ (Laapataa Ladies), ‘O Maahi’ (Dunki), ‘Chaleya’ (Jawan) and ‘Apna Bana Le’ (Bhediya) among others.
Also read: From Payal Kapadia to Vicky Kaushal: 2024-25 Showstoppers, filmmakers and film edition
Arivu
In 2024, the rapper, lyricist, and composer released a 12-song album titled Valliamma Peraandi: Vol 01 in collaboration with Sony Music India. The album touches on themes of untouchability, love, resistance and family. The singer has made an impact on the music landscape with his thought-provoking lyrics. With a versatile discography that includes hits like ‘Sanda Seivom’ and ‘Enjoy Enjaami’, Arivu has established himself as a sought-after musician in the industry.
Dhee
Image: Madhavan
With hits like ‘Enjoy Enjaami’ and ‘Rowdy Baby’, the 26-year-old singer-songwriter gained widespread recognition, regularly racking up tens of millions of streams worldwide. On Spotify alone, she boasts an impressive 7.5 million monthly listeners. Dhee also released her debut album Jackfruit. Additionally, she’s collaborated with top artistes like AR Rahman and Diljit Dosanjh, and has worked on various projects, including independent releases with Arivu and Vijaynarain.
Diljit Dosanjh
Image: Andrew Chin/Getty Images
This was an exceptional year for him with the highlight being the massive success of his Dil-Luminati Tour, which has been selling out shows within minutes of tickets going live. His performance in Amar Singh Chamkila also received critical acclaim. His songs from the film as well as from Crew and Jigra became extremely popular. Dosanjh was No. 14 on Spotify’s Top 25 Wrapped artists in India 2024 list.
Also read: Big Stepper: How Sooraj Cherukat aka Hanumankind set the world ablaze
Hanumankind
Image: Mexy Xavier
Soon after Hanumankind aka Sooraj Cherukat and Kalmi released ‘Big Dawgs’ in July 2024, the song and the video went viral. The song touched No. 9 on the Billboard Global 200 chart, a major achievement for Indian hip-hop. The song’s music video has over 183 million views on YouTube. Recently, New York rap icon A$AP Rocky collaborated with him on a ‘Big Dawgs’ remix version.
Karan Aujla
Image: Image: Cindy Ord/Getty Images
He made waves with his track ‘Tauba Tauba’ from the film Bad Newz. He was No. 11 on Spotify’s Top 25 Wrapped artists in India 2024 list. Aujla has been a prominent singer-songwriter in the Punjabi music industry. The Canada-based artiste has written lyrics for people such as Jassi Gill, Deep Jandu, Diljit Dosanjh and more. Some of his hit songs include ‘Chunni Meri Rang De Lalariya’ (2023) and ‘White Brown Black’ (2022), among others.
Sachin-Jigar
Image: Prodip Guha/Getty Images
It was an excellent year for Sachin-Jigar who gave chart-topping hits like ‘Aaj Ki Raat’ from Stree 2. His songs from films like Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya, Munjya, Vicky Vidya Ka Woh Wala Video and Citadel: Honey Bunny were also popular. In the Spotify Wrapped data, they are No. 6 on the most-streamed artists for Bollywood fans in 2024.
Sunidhi Chauhan
Image: Sujit Jaiswal / AFP
She reinvented herself as a pop star, whether it was with her latest releases or live show performances. Chauhan’s I Am Home tour has been selling out shows not only in India but also in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. Her recent release ‘Aankh’ became popular for the song and the music video that features actor Sanya Malhotra. She has close to 20 million monthly listeners on Spotify.
Methodology
Forbes India Showstoppers, in its third year, is a list of 75 achievers who have outperformed in their respective fields—cinema (theatrical release), OTT, music and sports. The timeline considered is December 1, 2023, to December 1, 2024. Three months ago, a team of journalists and senior editors at Forbes India started putting together a long list of close to 150 names of actors, filmmakers, musicians, singers and sportspersons, through primary and secondary research. They arrived at the final list of 75 in the first week of December after internal deliberations. Since 2024 saw a multitude of younger professionals and artistes making their mark across these categories, especially in cinema and OTT, the List this year gives preference to younger stars over senior, more established celebrities.
For cinema, the factors under consideration were quality of work, appreciation (critical acclaim and popularity), level of challenge and diversity in roles, pipeline of projects, and box office success. In OTT, apart from the challenge and diversity of roles, we also considered popularity and recall value of their respective roles and shows. For sports, the metric was achievements this year, while for music, it was popularity across mainstream genres during the year.
Category coordinators: Naini Thaker and Samidha Jain
Text by Naini Thaker
(This story appears in the 10 January, 2025 issue
of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)