Now, fat pay cheques for all in B'wood

Mumbai: Following in the footsteps of their Hollywood counterparts, now Bollywood movie stars will enjoy the kind of fat pay cheques that they once only dreamed about.

Dishing out the kind of salaries that traditional producers cannot possibly afford, it is the corporates in Bollywood - film-producing firms like Adlabs, UTV, Yashraj Films, Mukta Arts, Ashtavinayak - who are fast closing the best deals in the business. Hrithik Roshan has been reportedly signed up for a three-movie deal with Adlabs Films for Rs 35 crore.

The grand plan is fairly uncomplicated. Take the case of Yashraj Films, undisputedly the country's biggest movie-producing company. Almost every leading star is signed up with the banner for one or more films.

Currently, Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Saif Ali Khan, Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Rani Mukherji, Preity Zinta, Madhuri Dixit, Lara Dutta, Bobby Deol, Vidya Balan, John Abraham and Bipasha Basu are all on the Yashraj payroll, committed to act in one or more of the four to five films that the company produces each year.

With big budgets, talented directors, comfortable working conditions and a lavish marketing campaign promised, the stars are only too happy to come on board.

“They are many benefits of the changes. Everybody is working professionally and the responsibility is being shared. If we want to produce sic-seven films in a year then planning and budgeting is required,” Chairman and MD, Adlabs, Manmohan Shetty said.

Raking in Moolah

Hrithik Roshan has been reportedly signed up for a three-movie deal with Adlabs Films for Rs 35 crore.

Akshay Kumar, it is believed, will receive Rs 7 crore to star in a film for the same company to be directed by Vipul Shah.

Industry insiders say Aamir Khan took home a cool Rs 7 crore to star in Yashraj Films' Fanaa.

In Bobby Bedi's Mangal Pandey, Aamir not only took a fat upfront fee but also a share in the film's profits, thus bringing his final pay-cheque to something in the region of Rs 7 crore.

Evidently, the game has changed. Gone are the days when individual producers like Boney Kapoor, Sudhakar Bokade and Vashu Bhagnani could raise finances from private investors and attract stars to work in films that took months and often years to complete.

Today, even directors like Ramesh Sippy, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Farhan Akhtar and Ramgopal Varma have their own production companies, which are producing three to four films each year, backed by leading corporates like Adlabs or UTV.

And thanks to corporates investing in the movies, smaller films are also making it to the theatres. UTV produced Main Meri Patni Aur Woh for less than Rs 2 crore, they also marketed and released Khosla Ka Ghosla for as much.

Shringar Films released Gafla, Khamosh Paani and Dosar. Subhash Ghai's Mukta Arts produced Nagesh Kukunoor's modestly-budgeted Iqbal.

The mantra is clear: it's not always about making big money in the opening weekend.

"There will be films of a budget of Rs 5 crore, going up to Rs 30 crore. A film is as big or small as you make of it. The market push makes a difference in box office results,” Vice-President, Marketing, UTV, Siddharth Roy Kapoor said.

Eventually, it is of course about the returns or the results. And with the corporate invasion of Bollywood, a film's theater collections are the only one of the many sources of revenue.

Money is now to be made out of home video sales, satellite rights, music rights, merchandising, mobile ringtone rights and Internet rights.

It's clear that today if you have made even a half-way decent movie, you're almost certain to recover your investment, even if you don't make any profit. The good times, clearly, are here.

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