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| Bollywood divas never had it so good |
| Abhilasha Ojha / New Delhi Sep 03, 2008, 05:31 IST |
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FILMS: As film budgets get bigger, fees touch the million dollar mark.
In her heyday about ten years ago, Madhuri Dixit charged Rs 20 lakh per film. It was a sizeable amount and Dixit was a star not all producers could afford. Only topnotch production houses had pockets deep enough to sign her.
The next generation of filmdom women — Kajol, Preity Zinta, Urmila Matondkar and others — raised the bar to thrice the amount and producers gasped in awe when Aishwarya Rai demanded and got Rs 1 crore a couple of years ago.
Cut to the present. The current crop like Katrina Kaif, Kareena Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra and Rai charge anywhere between Rs 4 crore and Rs 5 crore for each film. This is more than the budget of small films like Bheja Fry and not very different from the kind of money hot male stars commanded till five years ago.
Shilpa Shetty, who hardly has any film in hand (she’s launched her own production company), is learnt to have made a killing on the small screen through her weekly appearance on Bigg Boss Season 2 on the general entertainment channel, Colors. Her every appearance sets the producers of the show back by Rs 80 lakh!
This is the same as what Salman Khan gets for every episode of his show, Dus Ka Dum, on Sony. For the record, Amitabh Bachchan charged for Kaun Banega Crorepati on Star TV Rs 50 lakh per episode. Shahrukh Khan got paid twice the amount in the third edition of the show. Shilpa’s fees falls between the two superstars. Gender equality on television no longer looks a distant dream.
Take now a look at endorsement money. Two films old, Deepika Padukone charged Rs 1.5 crore for a one-year contract with ITC to promote its Fiama De Wills toiletries.
That’s the kind of money a top performer like Aamir Khan commanded till not so long ago. Kareena charges around Rs 2 crore for each endorsement, though her Airtel ad with Saif Ali Khan has reportedly fetched her Rs 5 crore!
Times have changed for the better for the ladies of the Mumbai film industry. What they get may still be way below their male counterparts get, but it is significantly higher than what they got paid earlier. They have clearly never had it better.
Trade analysts and film industry insiders say this is because the whole scale of Indian films has improved beyond recognition in the last few years. And film stars – men as well as women – have gained immensely from it.
Says film analyst Taran Adarsh: “Budgets of films have upped from Rs 20-30 crore to Rs 80-90 crore.” Opening up of overseas territories, feels Adarsh, has been one of the biggest reasons why the film industry is actually commanding such huge numbers.
Five years ago, the number of prints of a new release was never more than 500. Aamir Khan’s Mangal Pandey released with 1,000-odd prints, a record for any Bollywood film, in 2005. Today, big budget films like Jodhaa Akbar and Singh is Kinng are released with 1,500-2,000 prints. Whew!
“When we released Dharm, only 25 per cent of our profits came from theatrical space; the rest came from other spheres,” says Sheetal Talwar, chairman & managing director of Vistaar Religare Capital Advisors.
While Dharm was a relatively niche film, the undisputed fact is that the money in the space has grown beyond recognition. Large corporate houses are ready to finance films. After all, a hit film can give returns of up to 300 per cent.
Harish Bijoor, brand specialist and the chief executive of Harish Bijoor Consults, makes an interesting comment: “Beyond five years, it is usually impossible for actresses in Bollywood to sustain their endorsements. Men, by that comparison, are approached even if they’re in their mid-30s and early-40s and can stretch their endorsements for more than a decade.”
This shows in the rapidly-changing pecking order. Deepika, Katrina and Kareena, for instance, have started replacing some of the older faces in the industry. While Katrina, who charges Rs 1.5 crore for endorsing products, has replaced Aishwarya for Nakshatra, Deepika has taken over from Preity Zinta to harp the virtues of state-owned BSNL.
This perhaps is also the reason why these stars need to monetise their glamour and success as fast as possible. This, perhaps, is the reason why some of them like Preity Zinta and Sushmita Sen have made serious business investments.
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