The poll was conducted by the market research agency, C-fore. A total of 1,053 femalerespondents were polled in the four metros of Chennai, Calcutta, Mumbai, and New Delhibetween March 25 and April 10. While only a couple of decimal points separated the topfour-Shahrukh clocking 7.58 on a scale of 10 to Aamirs 7.52; Hrithik hitting7.19 to Amitabhs 7.18the race between the rest was more evenly spread out.Omar Abdullah with 5.31 was the only pol to figure in this poll.
Prannoy Roy, at No. 10, registered 5.89; Arjun Rampal at No. 20 struck 5.25; and AmjadAli Khan came in with 4.24 at No. 25, edging out such worthies as Ratan Tata, RemoFernandes, Anil Ambani, Azim Premji and K.P.S. Gill, who were in the initial shortlist of30. For all their muscle-flexing, Salman Khan and Sunny Deol are only 16th and 17th. Andalthough he hosts mind shows, Siddhartha Basu (No. 23) is still seen as a slicker. Somestereotypes, though, get reinforced. Only three South Indians are in the top 25.
An initial list of 100 celebrity males in different fields was prepared by Outlook.C-Fore conducted a preliminary survey in the metros to shortlist the top 30 names fromthat list. Pollsters then went around with that shortlist. Each celebrity was rated forhis sex appeal on a ten-point scale. The respondents comprised women below 20 years of age(25 per cent), between 21-30 years (33 per cent), 31-40 years (24 per cent), and above 40years (18 per cent).