Forbes just released its list of the highest paid actors of 2017. It is a veritable line up of Hollywood stars from numbers 1 to 20. Except for a brief break at numbers 8, 9 and 10 where suddenly Bollywood makes its entrance. At number 10 is Akshay Kumar who earned US$ 35.5 million. Ahead of him is Salman Khan at 9th with US$ 37 million. And leading the Hindi pack is Shah Rukh Khan at 8th with US$ 38 million or, in India rupee terms, an earning of a whopping Rs243 crores in a year. In the 2016 list too, Shah Rukh was on top with US $33 million but he had been the 10th richest, which means he jumped up by two ranks. Salman made an even more impressive leap. Last year with US$ 28.5 million he had been the 16th richest and so he has gone up by 7 ranks. And even overtook Akshay who had last year been 12th richest with US$ 31.5 million. While Akshay has also jumped two places, he is now behind Salman in 2017.
While this does indeed show that Bollywood is becoming more lucrative by the year for its superstars and that they now rub shoulders with the topmost Hollywood stars in terms of what they earn, it must also be said that even these numbers of Hindi film stars are probably not entirely correct. It doesn’t make sense that Shah Rukh should be the biggest earner when his movies have not been doing well. Salman’s movies do much better and his television show Bigg Boss has some of the best ratings around which means he is probably getting paid a king’s ransom for it. Akshay too has had a series of superhits, all of whom have made more money that Shah Rukh’s movies.
And then there is the absence of Aamir Khan whose movie Dangal has made around Rs2,000 crore and since he takes a share of the profit, that should amount to something seriously big. The earnings of Bollywood stars have always been a closely guarded secret; and they probably earn much more than what they reveal. And because Hollywood is more transparent, the revenues of its stars are probably more in line with reality. Bollywood’s superstars therefore would probably have even better ranking if their real numbers were known.
Friends again?
Have Karan Johar and Kajol buried their recent estrangement? If some reports are to be believed, this might very well be the case. There was once a time when the two were thick as thieves. Even after Kajol had more or less stepped back from full time acting, Karan would manage to get her to be in his movies even if as a side character. But then they had a bitter parting, mainly because Karan and Kajol’s husband Ajay Devgn didn’t get along. And matters came to a head when the two men had movies releasing at the same time and there were allegations by Ajay of Karan using underhand tactics to sabotage his movie.
At the time, Karan accused Kajol of not believing in his innocence. When his book came out he said that their friendship was over. But turns out, it might not be after all. A newspaper reported that early this month when Kajol threw a birthday party, she invited Karan who came and the two had a long conversation. Also, when Karan put up photos of his children on Instagram, Kajol put a ‘like’ on it. The two haven’t commented on this rapprochement. Perhaps they are waiting to see if it is for real!
Clash of topic
Even if Karan Johar might be burying the hatchet with Kajol, his relationship with her husband Ajay Devgn is not getting any better. Once again they are looking set for a potential conflict.
Recently, Akshay Kumar announced that Salman Khan might be producing a movie he was going to be in based on a famous battle between a handful of Sikh soldiers of the British Indian army against thousands of Afghan tribals. The co-producer of the movie was Karan Johar. The only problem: Ajay was also making a movie on the same subject.
And in what is now a fresh salvo, he said in a media interview that Salman would not be a part of the other production. This was reportedly because Salman hadn’t known that Ajay was making a movie on the same subject and on realising it he didn’t want to go against his friend. In the same interview, Ajay said that while he didn’t know what the status of the other movie was, he was definitely going ahead with his and that he would do it on a large scale and so it might take a couple of years. And that in the interim if someone else released their movie on the subject, he would still be making it.
Given Karan’s involvement in the other project, it won’t do the strained relationship between the two any good.
Back quizzing
The ninth season of Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) is now on air and the man who is helming it is once again Amitabh Bachchan, who propelled the quiz show to become so successful that it rewrote television history. But the rewards worked in both directions – Amitabh too saw a resurgence in his fading popularity and got a second lease for his career thanks to the show.
Later, the producers experimented with stars other than Amitabh, like Shah Rukh Khan, to host the show but it didn’t evoke the same magic. At an event recently, Amitabh remembered how he decided to do the show even though some of his family members were not certain that he should do it. To make the decision he even went abroad to watch the original show that it was based on. In retrospect, taking on the show has to be the most important thing that Amitabh did. No one had anticipated at the time that television, till then not taken very seriously by Bollywood stars, could be such a powerful medium.
Without the show, Amitabh could have drifted off into the sunset as a character artiste like all his contemporaries. But KBC turned him once again into a superstar.
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Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and Akshay Kumar are the top three paid actors in Bollywood, according to Forbes.
