MUMBAI: Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif have retained their top positions at the popularity index of the Bollywood stars.

As per Ormax Media’s ‘Stars India Loves ‘study for the month of February, Salman Khan is the most popular actor, while Katrina Kaif is the most popular actress.

Ormax Media, the media research and consulting firm, had started the Stars India Loves study in November 2009. The company took response from 200 respondents from Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Lucknow and Indore. 

Some of the interesting findings are:

Salman Khan’s share has been increasing consistently from November last year (34 per cent) to 46 per cent in February. Following him is Shah Rukh Khan with 29 per cent share. While female respondents ranked SRK the second most popular actor, the males ranked him in the fourth position behind Akshay Kumar and Aamir Khan.

Akshay Kumar‘s popularity, ranked third, was heavily male skewed. Amongst females, his rank dropped to the seventh position.

Ranbir Kapoor was ranked sixth amongst the combined respondents. The women ranked him in the fourth position while he was ranked ninth amongst the male respondents.

Sunny Deol, who witnessed an increase in his share from November to February, was at eleventh place, ahead of Abhishek Bachchan and Imran Khan.

Among the actresses Kaif maintained her lead with 51 per cent share. Aishwarya Rai, Kajol, Kareena Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra are locked in close battle for the second rank with only three per cent share separating them from each other.