BOLLYWOOD KA BADSHAH
SRK gets a crore to grace event
Forget Lakhs, Crore Is The New Lakh In Bollywood
Shah Rukh Khan made history. When the Bollywood supremo appeared as the guest of honour at a function where the Gulf Finance House (one of the leading Islamic Investment Banks in West Asia) signed a business pact with the government of Maharashtra, the actor reportedly mopped up a whopping Rs 1 crore as his fee
For Khan, charging a crore is nothing new — he has been paid several crores for stage performances both in India and overseas, as, reportedly, have Akshay and Hrithik. However, no actor in Bollywood history has ever charged the Big C just to grace an occasion.
It took Amitabh Bachchan, Bollywood’s biggest star in the 1970s and part-’80s, three decades of hard work before he could reach the magical 1-crore figure for K C Bokadia’s Lal Badshah (1999). And it took his ‘bahu’ Aishwarya Rai a Miss India crown and a few topsy-turvy years in the movies before she could charge Rs 1 crore.
“Today, thanks to loaded corporates, the crore has lost its significance in Bollywood,’’ avers trade analyst Amod Mehra. Adds Ram Mirchandani, UTV executive vice-president (motion pictures), “One crore is the new one lakh.’’
Indeed, say trade sources, it is not only the top echelons of the film business that are raking the moolah in hand over fist. “Directors, cinematographers and music directors are also demanding a croreplus as their remuneration,’’ says a Bollywood insider.
In the past few days, several deals have fallen through because a lot of actors have been demanding a crore — it is alleged that Tabu walking out of Zoya Akhtar’s ‘Luck By Chance’ is one such. An insider claims that the internationally feted ‘The Namesake’ actress was signed for the film two years ago for Rs 20 lakh. However, since the project came back to her after a few glitches and with many changes, including a new leading man, Farhan Akhtar, she asked for Rs 1 crore.
While sterling performers Irrfan Khan and Arshad Warsi, who are clearly slotted as supporting actors, have recently shocked filmmakers by demanding Rs 1.5 crore as their fee, even those on the periphery of tinseltown like Zayyed Khan and Abhay Deol have had the gumption to demand Rs 1 crore.
Mehra confirms that membership to the Crore Club in Bollywood is no longer exclusive. While Alist actors and directors like Karan Johar, David Dhawan, Raakesh Roshan and Madhur Bhandarkar have been enrolled for a while now, smaller players, albeit reluctantly, are also being let into this no longer cocooned space.
For Khan, charging a crore is nothing new — he has been paid several crores for stage performances both in India and overseas, as, reportedly, have Akshay and Hrithik. However, no actor in Bollywood history has ever charged the Big C just to grace an occasion.
It took Amitabh Bachchan, Bollywood’s biggest star in the 1970s and part-’80s, three decades of hard work before he could reach the magical 1-crore figure for K C Bokadia’s Lal Badshah (1999). And it took his ‘bahu’ Aishwarya Rai a Miss India crown and a few topsy-turvy years in the movies before she could charge Rs 1 crore.
“Today, thanks to loaded corporates, the crore has lost its significance in Bollywood,’’ avers trade analyst Amod Mehra. Adds Ram Mirchandani, UTV executive vice-president (motion pictures), “One crore is the new one lakh.’’
Indeed, say trade sources, it is not only the top echelons of the film business that are raking the moolah in hand over fist. “Directors, cinematographers and music directors are also demanding a croreplus as their remuneration,’’ says a Bollywood insider.
In the past few days, several deals have fallen through because a lot of actors have been demanding a crore — it is alleged that Tabu walking out of Zoya Akhtar’s ‘Luck By Chance’ is one such. An insider claims that the internationally feted ‘The Namesake’ actress was signed for the film two years ago for Rs 20 lakh. However, since the project came back to her after a few glitches and with many changes, including a new leading man, Farhan Akhtar, she asked for Rs 1 crore.
While sterling performers Irrfan Khan and Arshad Warsi, who are clearly slotted as supporting actors, have recently shocked filmmakers by demanding Rs 1.5 crore as their fee, even those on the periphery of tinseltown like Zayyed Khan and Abhay Deol have had the gumption to demand Rs 1 crore.
Mehra confirms that membership to the Crore Club in Bollywood is no longer exclusive. While Alist actors and directors like Karan Johar, David Dhawan, Raakesh Roshan and Madhur Bhandarkar have been enrolled for a while now, smaller players, albeit reluctantly, are also being let into this no longer cocooned space.
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