Top 5 Indian Celebrities who made a social impact



1. Priyanka Chopra

Is the UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and also the brand ambassador of NDTV's Greenathon, an initiative to support eco-friendliness and improve electricity supplies to rural areas.





2. Deepika Padukone

Deepika Padukone is in the process of setting up her ‘The Live Love Laugh Foundation’, is in the process of being setup. The foundation aims to spread awareness about mental health and offer help to those who are affected.





3. Farhan Akhtar

Launched the social campaign Men Against Rape and Discrimination or MARD/M.A.R.D in 2013.The campaign aims to raise social awareness against rape and discrimination of women.





4. Amitabh Bachchan

Is the UN Goodwill Ambassador, has been recently appointed the UN Ambassador for the Girl Child, supports Cancer charities supports PETA, Polio campaign, the Mijwan Foundation, and the Swachch Bharat campaign.





5. Vivek Oberoi

Vivek helped rebuild a village, which was hit severely by the 2004 tsunami in Tamil Nadu. He has adopted a tsunami-ravaged village in the state's Cuddalore district. Vivek runs a school at Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh named Project Devi, which caters to underprivileged girls abandoned by their families. He is one of the spokespersons for the Tobacco Free Initiative by the World Health Organization, and has joined hands with the Indian government for the Van Dhan Jan Dhan initiative that promotes handicrafts, biofuels and other products, which are produced using forest materials. His latest project involves helping build low cost houses for the underprivileged in Shahpur, Maharashtra.





It was hard to finalise the names of the Top 5 celebrities who made social impact this year, because almost every Indian mainstream actor today, male or female, is conscious of the values that they embody in the characters that they portray in their films. From Amitabh Bachchan in the film Pink along with his stellar set of co-actors Tapsee Pannu, Kirti Kulhari and Andrea Tariang to Salman Khan and Anushka Sharma in Sultan, Shahrukh Khan in Dear Zindagi, Aamir Khan in his latest Dangal, to Alia Bhatt in Udta Punjab and then Dear Zindagi after that, Radhika Apte in Parched, Vidya Balan in Kahaani 2, along with their very committed writers, directors and producers like Shoojit Sarkar, Anirudh Roy Chowdhury, Ritesh Shah, Gauri Shinde, Leena Yadav and others; all made the cut and therefore the list just became endless. The jury then decided to bring the list down to the Top 5 by ensuring that it should be built basis the work done by the celebrity actors who offered their status as stars to campaigns for causes, compelling social issues and/or to foundations and organisations engaged with developmental work. So here they are: