The Hollywood Reporter India's Women In Entertainment Power List 2026: Inside The Methodology
As excitement builds for THR India's Women in Entertainment event on March 25, here is a look at the methodology that helped us arrive at these names.
The Hollywood Reporter India’s second Women in Entertainment Power List in partnership with De Beers celebrates exceptional women across the entertainment ecosystem – from performers and creators to executives, technicians, leaders and decision-makers working across film, television, music, digital platforms, and new media, who have either been trailblazers in male-dominated spaces, building new pathways for other women, or expanding opportunities for diverse/ more female voices.
Read More | Women In Entertainment Power List 2025
As excitement builds for the Women in Entertainment event on March 25 in Mumbai, here is a look at the methodology that helped us arrive at these names.
The Methodology
To create the List for the most powerful women in the media and entertainment industry in the country, a two-pronged approach was followed. It combined an understanding of the evolution of women’s influence, leadership, and creative agency with an extensive mapping of contributors across the entertainment ecosystem. Each shortlisted name was assessed on their contribution to shaping India’s cultural and entertainment identity, strengthening empowering narratives for women, their ability to influence public discourse and their leadership in shaping content and policy.
Qualitative insights were systematically supported by quantitative analysis, which included social media influence, audience reach, business influence, volume of work, number and depth of achievements and accolades received, and project performance over the past year. To account for sustained relevance, performance and visibility were tracked over a three-year period. The research employed a combined vertical and horizontal impact assessment to capture the evolving, boundary-blurring nature of the Indian entertainment industry, where content and talent increasingly move across languages, regions, platforms, and formats. It examined women’s ability to operate fluidly across multiple creative roles—on screen, behind the camera, in production, and at a strategic storytelling level—while also recognising sustained excellence and leadership within specific domains. Using both qualitative insights and quantitative data, these dimensions were integrated into a comparable impact score that informed the final selection.
Each name on the longlist was revisited through multiple, successive rounds of research and review. These included whether a woman’s work, public voice, and engagement with audiences were shaping perceptions of women in the industry and whether her contribution(s) had created something distinctive, fresh, or lasting.
Combining these methodologies, this integrated list allowed for evaluation through multiple lenses, ensuring that the final selection for the most powerful women in entertainment was informed by sustained analysis rather than single-point observations.