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

She took 42.3% of 5,756 verified votes, more than three times the runner-up’s share.

The result in four numbers.

A clear win

Fifteen nominees were on the ballot for Most Popular Performance in a Negative Role (Television) at IFTA 2026.

Kanika Mann (Naagin 7) won with 2,435 of 5,756 verified votes, 42.3%. The runner-up, Shagun Sharma (Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2), got 12.0%. The winner’s share was 3.5 times the runner-up’s.

Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2 had two nominees, Shagun Sharma and Barkha Bisht, who together took 17.1%.

All 15 nominees, ranked by verified votes.
Kanika Mann, winner of Most Popular Performance in a Negative 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 4,568 of the 5,756 votes (79%). Kanika Mann won 45.6% of women’s votes and 28.9% of men’s.
  • Voters under 25 cast 72% of all votes. The biggest single group was voters aged 18–24 (2,808 votes).
  • Women aged 12–17 were Kanika Mann’s strongest group: 49.7% of their 1,222 votes went to Kanika Mann.
  • 73% of Kanika Mann’s votes came from women under 25 (1,770 of 2,435).

It did not lead everywhere: voters aged 45–59 preferred Sahil Arora (27.8%) and voters aged 60+ preferred Sahil Arora (26.6%).

Voters aged 18–24 were the biggest group, and women cast 79% of all votes.
Women under 25 gave Kanika Mann 73% of its votes.

Same winner, different second choices

Men’s second choice was Sahil Arora (Mangal Lakshmi) with 18.9%. Among women he got 2.8%, the biggest gender gap in this category.

  • Krushal Ahuja: 3.3% of women’s votes, 1.9% of men’s, 1.7 times as popular with women.
  • Kinshuk Mahajan: 4.5% of women’s votes, 2.8% of men’s, 1.6 times as popular with women.
  • Barkha Bisht: 5.5% of women’s votes, 3.6% of men’s, 1.5 times as popular with women.
How women and men voted for the nominees behind the winner.

Across IFTA 2026

Rimjhim – Choti Umar Bada Safar won six of the nine Television categories, but had no nominee here. The other two non-Rimjhim wins went to Dilip Joshi (Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah) and Laughter Chefs S3.

In the voters’ own words

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

“I have seen her acting skills and it is graceful as well as flawless ❤️”

“Best Performance”

“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 Performance in a Negative Role (Television) result, or all results: Bollywood · OTT · Television

All vote figures from the IFTA 2026 Most Popular Performance in a Negative Role (Television) results on PolBol (5,756 verified votes, results final). Group figures are as published there; combined totals are added up from the published counts. Nominee images: IFTA 2026.