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Akshay Kumar doesn’t sign a film these days unless the script is absolutely brilliant, the banner top-class and the director ultra successful. In all other cases, he either says “no” or quotes a ridiculous price like Rs 15 crore. If the producer is willing to pay him that kind of money, Akshay would be mad to turn it down. And so, if he does go ahead and sign a film for Rs 15 crore, that becomes his fee for all future assignments.

Akshay can afford to be pricey he’s a star. In an industry that has an output of about 150 films a year, he’s one of only five actors who are genuinely entitled to that designation. Despite the hordes of Bollywood heroes whose faces we see in every newspaper, magazine, news channel and product endorsement campaign in the country, only Akshay Kumar and four others have what’s called pulling power. They can sell their films on the strength of their names alone. That makes them more special than other actors and greater than other filmy celebrities. That makes them genuine stars.

Even if in this article, we happened to feature a quiz on Bollywood (which it doesn’t), you wouldn’t get so much as a plastic ballpoint pen as a prize for naming the four other actors who qualify as real stars. Yes, they’re the usual suspects: Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Salman Khan and Hrithik Roshan. 

Think about it: Movies that star Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar or Hrithik Roshan almost always run to packed houses at least for the first show of the first day of the film’s release, if not the whole day itself. Why? Because the audience wants to see them at least as much as it wants to watch the films.

And when it comes to Shah Rukh Khan, that reaction is doubled. He’s the star of stars, the superstar. (Once that title belonged to Amitabh Bachchan, but now he shares it with Shah Rukh. Now that Amitabh has shifted to character roles he is no longer a hero, but the ’superstar’ title has remained because he is the busiest character actor Bollywood has ever had.)

The audience reacts this way to these five actors because they’re the only ones who, over their years in the industry, have consistently delivered hits - and several super hits - often on the strength of their performances alone. While there are many actors in the industry, it’s these five alone whose work in film after film remains with the audience for far longer than the work of other actors - often, even more than the films themselves. This is what makes them stars. And with stardom comes an aura that that makes an actor special.

Since the film industry is an industry like any other, only one thing matters for a producer: the bottom line. And so, from the producer’s point of view, signing a star implies that he does not have to bother about the sale of his film. A true star’s film would be sold on announcement itself, and it’s only on rare occasions that a producer with a film with one or more stars does not make a handsome profit on his investment. This profit comes from the distributor who, with no completed or even partially finished film to view before he decides whether to buy it or not, makes his decision based on the cast.

Which is why, if Akshay Kumar tries to put a producer off by quoting an absurdly high fee, chances are the producer might actually take him seriously. With Akshay in his film, he knows he will at least recover his money. Salman Khan works on the same principle and in fact, so do most actors. When offered a film they’d rather not do, they turn it down by quoting a crazy price. And once that price is quoted, it becomes the fee associated with the actor.

So what decides the price an actor gets? Plainly put, as with the pricing of any other commodity, it is the law of demand and supply. The greater the demand for an actor and/or the lower the supply (meaning that he doesn’t have shooting dates to offer the producer in a hurry), the higher the price he commands.

Today, the film industry seems to have gone into overdrive, so while a large number of films are produced every year, actors, whatever their calibre, are in short supply. This automatically pushes up their fees across the board. But an actor gets paid for more than his talent. His price also depends on his track record and his ability to sell a film. The more successful he is, the higher the price he commands.

That explains the obscenely high prices that are being paid to heroes like Akshay; Salman and Hrithik by producers eager to start their films. Though Shah Rukh is a superstar and, by that reckoning, is in a position to quote and accept a truly terrifying fee, he doesn’t do so because, he says, he doesn’t like to “fleece” the industry which has made him the star he is today. “It is the film industry which has given me name, fame and status, so I don’t overcharge my producers,” Shah Rukh has famously said. “I make a killing in endorsements and stage shows.” Aamir Khan doesn’t let his star status go to his bank account either, if he feels it isn’t justified. Reportedly, Aamir recently turned down an offer of Rs 20 crore only because the corporate production house making the offer did not have a script ready for him to read. For Aamir, it’s the film that matters, so no matter how hard the people at the production house tried to sweeten the deal first they offered the entire amount upfront on signing the film, and then, when that didn’t work, offered him the same amount to work on a script of his choice - he refused.

If Aamir had signed the film, it would have been the highest remuneration any Bollywood star has received so far. But Shah Rukh and Aamir are two of a kind. As SRK says, “I’d rather that my producer put all that money into the film. How can I demand Rs 15 or 20 crore? Isn’t the film supposed to be more important than the actor?”

Not many actors are as conscientious as Aamir and Shah Rukh. The price war has always existed between actors and actresses. But the double digit crore war started around Diwali 2006 when Hrithik Roshan was signed by Adlabs in a composite three-film deal for Rs 30 crore. Before that deal, a multi-film tri-partite deal was being worked out between Akshay Kumar, Adlabs (financiers or presenters) and Vipul Shah (producer), but the deal was never finalised. (Other heroes, who had never been paid Rs 10 crore for a film before, upped their prices after the Hrithik Adlabs deal. And so, between last Diwali and this, star prices have touched dizzy heights. In the ’80s and early ’90s, Amitabh Bachchan was the only actor to be paid a crore of rupees for a film.

Every other actor spoke in lakhs. But today, even Emraan Hashmi demands - and, more important, gets Rs 1.5 crore for a film. Shiney Ahuja will not even listen to the story of a film if the producer doesn’t have a budget of Rs 2 crore for him. John Abraham doesn’t bat an eyelid before asking for Rs 5 crore. So what if No Smoking could not collect even Rs 5,000 in the first show! Akshaye Khanna can be lured with nothing less than Rs 2.5 crore, never mind if distributors are wary of touching his films because they don’t command a handsome opening. Bobby Deol may have forgotten what it is to be associated with a hit film but try signing him for less than Rs 2 crore! He won’t work. Zayed Khan may have made his producers and the distributors of his films poorer by crores, but can anyone sign him for less than Rs 1.5 crore? His secretary will not even pass on a producer’s message if that a sum is not promised. As Karan Johar sums up, “The new lakh is a crore.”

 It is not just heroes and heroines who ask for a crore and more. Even t character artistes like Paresh Rawal and Irrfan Khan have started to charge such crazy figures. Amrish Puri, at the fag end of his career, had dared to ask for Rs 75 lakh, but today, a character actor doesn’t bat an eyelid before quoting crores. Says a producer, “Only that actor whose name helps in selling the film deserves a crore or more. No other actor should be paid such obscene amounts.”  

 But, because of the law of demand and supply, these actors can ask for this kind of money - and get it too. Because, let’s face it, there are only five actors in the industry whose names can sell a film, while roughly 150 films are made every year. Heroines, however popular they are, have never been able to sell a film, whether to the audience or to the distributors.

So who are the people who act in these films? Well, thanks to the media boom, there’s a whole new class of ’stars’ in the filmi firmament - actors who have none of the pulling power of the industry’s real stars, but who, simply because they’re so visible in the media, appear to be stars.

As newspapers, magazines, TV and radio channels, and websites try desperately to sustain themselves in a crowded market, they write and show anything about Bollywood artistes because Bollywood sells. The print media has to fill its pages, the electronic media its air time and stories about actors get the most mileage among readers and viewers. That’s why many actors today have personal publicists whose jobs are to feed gossip about their clients to the media. And these snippets of information often have little to do with these actors’ films.

Upen Patel may not have been seen in any film of consequence in the last six months but his picture is all over Page 3 of newspapers as though he were the one of Bollywood’s most happening stars. John Abraham is written about more for his romance with Bipasha Basu than for his affair with films. Emraan Hashmi’s kisses on screen take more media space than his histrionic skills, whatever he possesses of them. Zayed Khan gets written and spoken about for the cool dude he is, but does anybody remember his acting in any film? And five years ago, Arjun Rampal used to turn down acting offers because he didn’t consider himself less of a star than one of the Khans. His demand for a fixed price of Rs 1 crore saw many a film producer scurrying out of his house.

John, Zayed, Fardeen, Arjun, Emraan, Shiney Ahuja - these are all media-made stars. They make more news for their affairs, scandals, wardrobes, link-ups and break-ups than they do for their films. The media has become such an important part of people’s lives that it can make stars overnight. But media-made stars are like artificial flowers that don’t have a fragrance. They don’t have the pulling power of the real stars.

Even though their names and faces are all over the media, none of these actors has managed to get more than a lukewarm response from the audience when one of their films releases. Yet, with all the attention they get from the Bollywood-crazy media, they come to believe that they actually are stars. And so they behave as though they are stars. As though, they have the same power as SRK or Salman, as though their presence or lack of it in a movie can make or break the film.

As we all know, that is far from true. Yet, because of the media and the law of demand and supply; most actors, whatever the level of their talent, get paid what they ask for. That’s because the film industry itself is booming. Over the last 10 years, corporate houses have begun to produce movies on their own. For these corporates, funds are unlimited. They have public money; funds from private placements and venture capitalists. And with so much money at their disposal, logic takes a backseat.

But in the final analysis, the bottom line for any industry is money. And the film industry is no different. For every rupee expended, the corporate has to show the returns.

Once the profitability starts telling on the investment, the corporates will run for cover. But it may be too late then. Crores of rupees will have been lost and scores of corporates will have downed shutters, but the media-made stars will have laughed a1i the way to the bank.

WORKING AT CROSS PURPOSE

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s observation that regionalism is distorting the national agenda is timely and relevant because there is an urgent need to usher in balanced development in the country. Regional parties have often obstructed the best of the plans, forcing the Centre to change its stance on vital issues for its survival. The national-regional clash has become more pronounced, especially after coalition politics became the order of the day.

Even parties declared as ‘national’ outfits by the Election Commission often behave like regional parties due ideological considerations and compulsions arising out of their areas of influence. This conflict between the Centre and the pa regional outfits has retarded development and de has also led to political instability. Both the UPA and the NDA have suffered due to the growing influence of regional parties.

The PM’s remarks assume significance since they were made days before the start of the winter session and on the eve of the final round of talks between the Left and the UPA on the Indo-US nuclear deal. The observations could also have a bearing on the forthcoming one-day session of the All India. Congress Committee to be held in New Delhi on Saturday.

Remember how the TDP led by Chandrababu Naidu had held the A.B. Vajpayee government to ransom and forced it to extend extraordinary concessions to Andhra Pradesh at the expense of other states? The UPA faces a similar situation: it has become hostage to the demands of the Left on the nuclear deal. Allies like the DMK have also forced the government to go slow on some of its other plans. In addition, parties with regional bases like the RJD, NCP and the PDP continue to flex their muscles since they have started believing that the onus of running the coalition is more on the Congress even as the general election approaches.

These parties want to maintain a neutral stance on the eve of an election and keep a safe distance from whatever is perceived as negative policies of the UPA. In the end, the Congress is expected to bear the brunt of these political foxtrots. In addition, the .secular space that the Congress had hoped to capture is becoming smaller thanks to outfits like the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party. They can beat the Congress at its own game. In fact, the Congress may now understand that an over-emphasis on minority politics is not getting them minority votes, except in extraordinary situations like in Gujarat. In fact, it is alienating the party from the majority community. The caste politics unleashed by Mandalisation has thrown up new problems that no political party including the congress can solve.

Ideally, national development and regional aspirations should go hand-in-hand. Instead, regionalism with caste combinations is making things easy for only those castes which have supported the outfit at the expense of others. Long-term goals and targets are being neglected. As far as the N-deal is concerned, the UPA constituents (minus the Congress) seem to be of the view that remaining in power is more important than the future of the country.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s remarks at Jhajjar in Haryana (later played down by her party) that those who were opposing the nuclear deal were opponents of development need to be viewed in the proper context.

The Left seem to be more interested in preserving their ideological stance against imperialistic forces without realising that in this country the Congress track record in this respect is better than the other players. The Congress was never comfortable with coalition politics and most regional parties have their origins in anti-Congressism (including those who are in the UPA). The BJP thrived on it and successfully formed the NDA. The Left is banking on the same formula now.

The PM’s observations on regionalism are important because they indicate the desire for taking the country towards a two-party system. In a democracy, plurality of opinion is very important but a strong country is more important if India wants to become a global player. Indira Gandhi used to often warn about ‘Balkanisation‘ and termed the ’sons of soil’ theory as pernicious.

Regionalism in our country, in most instances, is taking the country towards these two ends. Every party has to realise that no politics is above the country and, therefore, to harm the progress of the country is not in the national interest. There are also doubts about whether the two-party system can exist but two formations - the NDA and UPA - had provided broad indicators towards polarization, which continues to be fluid with the Left having its own agenda coupled with others who could be part of the potential third front.

It is also to be seen whether the Congress after being let down by its allies on the Indo-US nuclear deal goes in for a fresh strategy and aspire once again to come to power on its own steam The AICC session may provide a glimpse of the party’s future agenda. The PM has spoken the truth and it is for us to give up narrow perspectives and allow the vision of a modern and powerful India to become a reality.