IFTA 2026, India’s only people’s choice film and television awards — voting open

Atul Verma Won Most Popular TV Supporting Actor With 56.5% for Rimjhim

By Amit Narang

Updated on November 3, 2026
IST 10:24 am

He took 9,602 of 16,985 verified votes and led every age group. Men’s second choice was Worship Khanna.

More than everyone else combined

Fifteen actors were on the ballot for Most Popular Actor in a Supporting Role (Television) at IFTA 2026. One of them took more votes than all the others combined.

Atul Verma (Rimjhim – Choti Umar Bada Safar) won with 9,602 of 16,985 verified votes, 56.5%. The runner-up, Abhishek Sharma (Tu Juliet Jatt Di), got 12.8%. The winner’s share was 4.4 times the runner-up’s.

Worship Khanna (Pati Brahmachari) was a close third with 11.4%.

Atul Verma, winner of Most Popular Actor in a Supporting Role (Television) at IFTA 2026

Who decided it

Every IFTA vote is OTP-verified, one per WhatsApp number per category, and every voter’s age and gender is recorded at sign-up. So this is not a survey sample. It is the full count of who voted.

Women cast 13,951 of the 16,985 votes (82%). Atul Verma won 59.1% of women’s votes and 44.0% of men’s.
Voters under 25 cast 73% of all votes. The biggest single group was voters aged 18–24 (8,400 votes).
Women aged 12–17 were Atul Verma’s strongest group: 75.7% of their 3,693 votes went to Atul Verma.
74% of Atul Verma’s votes came from women under 25 (7,153 of 9,602).

Atul Verma led in every age group with at least 30 voters.

Same winner, different second choices

Atul Verma won with women (59.1%) and with men (44.0%). Below the winner, women put Abhishek Sharma second (13.8%) and men put Worship Khanna second (24.2%).

Worship Khanna: 8.7% of women’s votes, 24.2% of men’s, 2.8 times as popular with men.
Sachin Parikh: 1.5% of women’s votes, 3.6% of men’s, 2.5 times as popular with men.
Vaquar Shaikh: 1.7% of women’s votes, 3.5% of men’s, about twice as popular with men.
Hiten Tejwani: 1.8% of women’s votes, 3.3% of men’s, about twice as popular with men.

Across IFTA 2026

Atul Verma’s win was one of six for Rimjhim – Choti Umar Bada Safar across the nine Television categories.

In the voters’ own words

Voters could add a reason with their vote. A few of them:

“He is a funniest character in serial”
“He is a best supporter”
“He is exceptional great actor.”

This is not a ratings chart or a critics’ list. It measures which audience turned up to vote, and how hard.

See the full results

IFTA 2026 voting has closed and the results are in. No jury, no award fixing: every winner was decided by India’s votes. See the full Most Popular Actor in a Supporting Role (Television) result, or all results: Bollywood · OTT · Television

All vote figures from the IFTA 2026 Most Popular Actor in a Supporting Role (Television) results on PolBol (16,985 verified votes, results final). Group figures are as published there; combined totals are added up from the published counts. Nominee images: IFTA 2026.