Mukesh & Nita Ambani Top The IIHB Power Couples Survey

Newly-weds Katrina Kaif & Vicky Kaushal (KatVic) clocked in at a respectable No. 9 in the annual Power Couples survey released by the Indian Institute of Human Brands (IIHB) today in Mumbai. The Ambanis of Reliance, Mukesh & Nita, topped the rankings with an impressive 94% score followed by Deepika Padukone & Ranveer Singh (DeepVeer) who scored 86% taking second place, while Indian captain Virat Kohli  and his actress wife Anushka Sharma (popularly together called Virushka) got a 79% score for third place. 

The survey covered a sample size of 1362 respondents (M=761, F=601) spread nationally, in the age group 25-40 years.

The last IIHB survey on Power Couples was released by IIHB in 2019. Last year no survey was done because of the pandemic. “The last time around we did not include any corporates or business couples in our list. But the research team at IIHB felt that the rankings should include Power Couples from all walks of life; hence business couples were added this time around to the list, and they seem to have done very well in the rankings”, says Dr. Sandeep Goyal, Chief Mentor, IIHB. Last year DeepVeer and Virushka were neck & neck in the rankings. 

The Rankings in the 2021 survey stood as follows:  

RankPower Couple             Score   

1Mukesh & Nita Ambani 94%   

2Ranveer & Deepika         86%   

3Virat & Anushka                 79%   

4Ranbir & Alia                     72%   

5Akshay & Twinkle                68%   

6Shahrukh & Gauri Khan      61%   

7Saif & Kareena                      56%   

8Amitabh & Jaya Bachchan   52%   

9Vicky & Katrina                      48%   

10Narayan & Sudha Murthy      46%   

11Natasha & Adar Poonawala     42%   

12Aditya Chopra & Rani Mukerjee 41%   

13Ajay Devgn & Kajol                    39%   

14Priyanka Chopra & Nick Jonas 38%   

15Abhishek & Aishwarya Rai         35%   

16Azim & Naseem Premji               32%   

17Sachin & Anjali Tendulkar          31%   

18MS & Sakshi Dhoni                      30%   

19Anand & Anuradha Mahindra     24%   

20Kumar & Neerja Birla 22%   

The Ambani power couple led the field on multiple attributes : Dynamic, Innovative, Successful, Prestigious, Unique, Progressive and Traditional.

DeepVeer were best on Fun, Distinctive, Charming, Different, and MFEO (Made For Ech Other). 

Virushka top scored on High Quality, Authentic, Outdoorsy and Best Brand.

Ranbir and Alia were seen to be tops on Stylish. Saif and Kareena followed.

The Most Respected power couple were the Murthys of Infosys: Narayan and Sudha. The senior Bachchans came a close second. The senior Bachchans and the Murthys swapped first and second place on Most Respected. 

Akshay & Twinkle were seen to be Straightforward and Dependable. 

MS Dhoni and wife Sakshi were seen to be Like Us, hence viewed with much empathy.  

“The inclusion of couples beyond films/entertainment and sports has made the Power Couples list more comprehensive and more representative,” says Dr. Goyal. “We also included a large list of celebrities from the South too – Dhanush & Aishwarya, Jyothika-Suriya, Namrata Shirodkar-Mahesh Babu:, Sneha-Prasanna, Samantha Ruth Prabhu-Naga Chaitanya:, Bhavna-Naveen, Ambareesh & Sumalatha, Ajith & Shalini, Khushboo & Sundar C, Hahadh Fazil & Nazriya Nazim, Suhasini & Maniratnam, Vijay & Sangeetha – but in an all-India sample none of them made the Top 20, though in the South most of them beat the national celebrity couples”. 

The overall list this year had included some artists of national repute –  Paresh Maity & Jayshree Burman, Subodh Gupta & Bharti Kher, Paramjit Singh & Arpita Singh, Atul Dodiya & Anju Dodiya; political and media couples Prakash & Brinda Karat, Prannoy & Radhika Roy, Ronnie & Zarina Screwvala and Rajiv Shukla & Anuradha Prasad. Other famous power couples that were included in the survey were: Falguni & Sanjay Nayar, Falguni & Shane Peacock, Bhushan & Divya Kumar, Sajjan & Sangeeta Jindal, Javed Akhtar & Shabana Azmi, Lakshmi & Usha Mittal, Siddharth Roy Kapoor & Vidya Balan and Saina Nehwal & Parupalli Kashyap.

The phrase Power Couple may seem very familiar and common place today but it was used for the first time less than two decades ago to describe English football captain and his singer wife Posh Spice, Victoria by the British tabloids.