Forty two primers specific for rice microsatellite markers were used for fingerprinting and assessing genetic diversity of 19 rice cultivars differing in resistance to brown planthopper. Thirty six primers revealed polymorphism among cultivars. A total of 128 alleles were amplified, of which 120 were polymorphic. The number of alleles varied from 1 to 13 with an average of 3.05 alleles per locus. The polymorphism information content (PIC) ranged from 0 to 0.952 with an average of 0.633 per polymorphic locus, indicating the suitability of the microsatellite markers for detecting genetic diversity among these rice cultivars. Genetic similarities among cultivars varied from 0.38 to 0.897 with an average of 0.604. All the cultivars could be differentiated and grouped into two major clusters at 54% level of genetic similarity. Seven unique alleles were identified which would be useful for developing diagnostic markers