Why: Through the pandemic, the actor has soared to become arguably the first pan-Indian OTT superstar. He has fans across states and is now Malayalam cinema’s primary flag-bearer. How can that sound hyperbolic when his lineup in the last year alone has included experimental gems like C U Soon, a sprawling gangster saga like Malik and a Shakespearean drama in Joji. Every OTT platform wants one of his movies in their library and every industry wants a slice of the actor-star. Add a film like Vikram (with Kamal Haasan and Vijay Sethupathi) in Tamil and Pushpa in Telugu (with Allu Arjun) and it looks like he's only begun to disrupt ideas of what a South Indian actor can do.
Created a stellar second season of their popular spy thriller show
Showed us that you don’t always need a big star to pull in crowds
Created a pathbreaking web-series that changed the game for Indian shows
Gave us back-to-back impeccable performances in 2021