Table of contents

1 Arts 2 Business and Industry 3 Literature 4 Mass Media 5 Movies 5.1 Directors 5.2 Actors 5.2.1 A-K 5.2.2 M-R 5.2.3 S-V 5.3 Actresses 5.3.4 A-K 5.3.5 M-R 5.3.6 S-Z 6 Music 7 Royalty 8 Politics 9 Sciences 10 Religion 11 Sports 12 Others

Arts

• Birju Maharaj, Dancer
• Mallika Sarabhai, Dancer
• MF Hussain, Painter
• Raja Ravi Varma, Painter
• PC Sorcar, Magician

• J.R.D. Tata, Industrialist, Tata Groups
• GD Birla, Industrialist, Birla Group
• NR Narayana Murthy, co-founder Infosys
• Sabeer Bhatia, co-founder Hotmail
• Shantanurao Laxmanrao Kirloskar, Kirloskar Group
• Subrata Roy, Sahara India Parivar
• Vinod Khosla, co-founder Sun Microsystems

• Mulk Raj Anand
• Arundhati Roy - Booker Prize for God of Small Things
• Harivansh Rai Bachchan, Hindi poet
• Kalidasa, playwrite, creator of Shakuntalam
• Khushwant Singh, novelist
• Mahadevi Verma, poetess
• Mirza Ghalib, Urdu poet
• Munshi Premchand, Hindi novelist
• Rabindranath Tagore - Nobel Prize in Literature, composer of Indian national anthem
• R.K. Narayan, English short-story writer
• Salman Rushdie - Booker Prize for ''Midnight's Children
• Vikram Seth, English novelist, poet
• V.S. Naipaul - Nobel Prize 2001 (of Indian descent, never an Indian citizen)

• Aniruddha Bahal, writer and Tehelka journalist
• Deepak Chaurasia, consulting editor and anchor, Doordarshan News
• M J Akbar, chief editor, Asian Age
• Prannoy Roy, president, NDTV
• Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, research coordinator, Doordarshan
• Sanjay Pugalia, director, STAR News
• Veer Sanghvi, editor, Hindustan Times

Directors

• Ismail Merchant
• Mani Ratnam
• Manoj Night Shyamalan
• Mira Nair
• Raj Kapoor
• Ram Gopal Varma
• Satyajit Ray - Oscar for lifetime achievement
• Shekhar Kapoor
• Shyam Benegal
• Subhash Ghai
• Shakti Samanta

• Aamir Khan
• Abhishek Bachchan
• Aftab Shivdasani
• Amitabh Bachchan
• Ajay Devgan
• Akshay Khanna
• Akshay Kumar
• Amol Palekar
• Anil Kapoor
• Arjun Rampal
• Bobby Deol
• Dev Anand
• Dharmendra
• Dilip Kumar
• Dino Morea
• Fardeen Khan
• Govinda
• Hrithik Roshan
• Jackie Shroff
• Jeetendra
• John Abraham
• Jimmy Shergill
• Kamal Hassan

• Madhavan
• Manoj Bajpai
• Manoj Kumar
• Mithun Chakraborty
• Naseeruddin Shah
• Om Puri
• Priyanshu
• Raj Kapoor (Actor and Director)
• Rajendra Kumar
• Raj Kumar
• Rajesh Khanna
• Rakesh Roshan
• Rishi Kapoor

• Saif Ali Khan
• Salman Khan
• Sanjay Dutt
• Sanjeev Kumar
• Shahrukh Khan
• Shammi Kapoor
• Shatrughan Sinha
• Sunil Dutt
• Sunil Shetty
• Sunny Deol
• Shashi Kapoor
• Tushar Kapoor
• Vinod Khanna
• Vinod Mehra
• Vivek Oberoi

• Aishwarya Rai, Miss World '94
• Amisha Patel
• Asha Parekh
• Bipasha Basu
• Dimple Kapadia
• Divya Bharati
• Diya Mirza
• Esha Deol
• Hema Malini
• Jaya Bachchan (Bhaduri)
• Jayaprada
• Juhi Chawla
• Kajol
• Kareena Kapoor
• Karisma Kapoor

• Madhubala
• Madhuri Dixit
• Mahima Chaudhary
• Mala Sinha
• Mandakini
• Manisha Koirala
• Meena Kumari
• Meenakshi Seshadri
• Namrata Shirodkar
• Nandita Das
• Nargis
• Neelam
• Nutan
• Padmini Kolhapure
• Pooja Batra
• Pooja Bhatt
• Poonam Dhillon
• Preity Zinta
• Raakhi
• Rani Mukherjee
• Rati Agnihotri
• Raveena Tandon
• Rekha

• Sadhana
• Saira Banu
• Shabana Azmi
• Sharmila Tagore
• Shilpa Shetty
• Smita Patil
• Sonali Bendre
• Sridevi
• Sushmita Sen, Miss Universe, 1994
• Tabu
• Tanuja
• Tina Munim
• Urmila Matondkar
• Vyjayantimala Bali
• Waheeda Rehman
• Zeenat Aman

• Abhijeet, singer
• Alka Yagnik, singer
• A.R. Rahman - Composer
• Anu Malik, composer
• Asha Bhosle, singer
• Babul Supriyo
• Geeta Dutt, singer
• Hemant Kumar, composer and singer
• Hridaynath Mangeshkar, composer
• Ilayaraja, Composer
• Kavita Krishnamurthy
• Kishore Kumar, Bollywood Playback singer, actor
• Kumar Sanu, singer
• Lata Mangeshkar, singer
• Mahendra Kapoor, singer
• Manna Dey, singer
• MS Subbulakshmi, Classical (Carnatic) Singer
• Mohammad Rafi, singer
• Mukesh, singer
• Noorjehan, singer
• Ravi Shankar, Sitar maestro
• Sadhana Sargam
• Shamshad Begum
• Suraiya, singer
• Talat Mahmood, singer
• Udit Narayan, singer
• Yesudas, singer
• Zakir Hussain, Tabla maestro
• Zubin Mehta, conductor

• Akbar the Great
• Ashoka the Great
• Aurangzeb
• Babur
• Chandragupta Maurya
• Jehangir
• Shah Jehan
• Tipu Sultan

• Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Prime Minister
• Indira Gandhi
• Jawaharlal Nehru
• Mahatma Gandhi
• Mulayam Singh Yadav, chief minister, Uttar Pradesh
• P. V. Narasimha Rao
• Rajiv Gandhi
• Lal Krishna Advani
• Bal Thackeray
• Chakravarti Rajagopalachari

• Aryabhatta
• Bhaskaracharya
• Sir C.V.Raman
• Hargobind Khorana
• Homi Jehangir Bhabha
• Raja Ramanna
• Srinivasa Ramanujan
• Satyendra Nath Bose
• Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
• Vikram Sarabhai
• A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
• Birbal Sahni
• Acharya P.C. Roy
• S. Bhagvantam
• Sir Jagdish Chandra Bose
• P.K. Sent
• Jagjit Singh
• Meghnad Saha
• E.C. George Sudarshan
• J.J. Rawal
• Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar
• Jayant Narlikar
• Harish Chandra
• Kollagunta Gopalaiyer Ramanathan

• Adi Sankara
• Mata Amritanandamayi
• Sri Aurobindo
• Gautama Buddha
• Guru Nanak
• Jiddu Krishnamurti
• Lord Mahavir
• Osho Shree Rajneesh
• Ramakrishna Paramhansa
• Sai Baba of Shirdi
• Sathya Sai Baba
• Samartha Ramdas Swami
• Sant Tukaram
• Sant Namdeo
• Swami Vivekananda

• Anil Kumble, Cricket
• Baichung Bhutia, Football
• Dhanraj Pillay, Hockey
• Dhyan Chand, Hockey
• Kapil Dev, Cricket
• Karnam Malleswari, Weight-lifting
• Leander Paes, Tennis
• Mahesh Bhupathi, Tennis
• Milkha Singh, Athelete
• Mohammed Azharuddin, Cricket
• Pargat Singh, Hockey
• Prakash Padukone, Badminton
• P. T. Usha, Athlete, Asian Games medallist
• Sachin Tendulkar,Cricket
• Sania Mirza, Junior Wimbledon Girls champion
• Sunil Gavaskar, Cricket
• Viswanathan Anand, Chess

• Basava Premanand, Skeptic and debunker of gurus
• Amartya Sen, Economist
• Rakesh Sharma, first Indian astronaut
• Kalpana Chawla, first Indian woman astronaut (Born Indian, later American citizen)