Shreya Ghoshal, Sai Abhyankkar and Reble among CNN-News18 Indian of the Year 2026 nominees

Music has a strong presence in this year's CNN-News18 Indian of the Year shortlist. The 16th edition of the awards revealed its Entertainment and Youth Icon nominees on Thursday, 22 October 2026. Entertainment nominees 1. Shreya Ghoshal, who released the live album The All Hearts Tour - Live in March and won the Screen Award for Best Playback Singer (Female) for the Saiyaara title track. 2. Dhanush, whose Raayan was named Best Tamil Film at the 72nd National Film Awards. 3. Imtiaz Ali, for Main Vaapas Aaunga, which ran 50 days in cinemas and entered Netflix's global Top 10 for non-English films. 4. Jim Sarbh, for playing Xerxes Desai in Made in India: A Titan Story. 5. Vishal Chaturvedi, for Hanuman Ansh, reported to have crossed Rs 200 crore on a budget of about Rs 2 crore. Youth Icon nominees 1. Sai Abhyankkar, the young Tamil composer whose breakout singles have a combined 600 million YouTube views. Read his story at https://mediamarvels.in/blog/sai-abhyankkar-songs-radhimaa-profile. 2. Daiaphi Lamare, known as Reble, recognised for her multilingual rap on Dhurandhar, which took Northeast Indian sounds to a national audience. 3. Samay Raina, for the second season of India's Got Latent. 4. Mamitha Baiju, who featured in three films that each crossed Rs 200 crore worldwide in one year. 5. Dharna Durga, for her debut in Netflix's Maa Behen. How to vote Public voting is open on the awards website. The ceremony date has not yet been announced. Two of the ten nominees are musicians in the Youth category alone, a sign of how independent and film music now shapes India's pop culture.