25 Most Powerful People in Bollywood
- mansworldindia.com
Every business, big and small has its leaders-men and women whose success and charisma provide it the energy, prosperity and long term vitality. In Bollywood these are people whose sphere of influence can 'greenlight a project', i.e. they can initiate the production of a new film at the most attractive of terms. For producers this means that their reputation should attract not just good financing but also the best people to work for them. In the case of directors, they should have had a track record that would draw the most popular actors to work for them at the least possible cost. And as for actors, they should be of the variety who not only add value to the project with their talent, but who also possess the appeal and aura-both perceived and real-to attract crowds into the theatre, not just for a good 'initial' (the box office takings during the first weekend of a film's release) but also over the next several weeks, even if the film is not of a great quality. Shah Rukh Khan has this quality, so does Amitabh Bachchan, Karan Johar, Ram Gopal Varma and Aishwarya Rai. They and twenty others constitute an elite and exclusive list of the Bollywood Establishment. Here's the listing for the first time...1: Shahrukh Khan
2: Amitabh Bachchan
3: Aamir Khan
4: Yash Chopra
5: Ram Gopal Varma
6: Karan Johar
7: Manmohan Shetty
8: Sanjay Leela Bhansali
9: Aishwarya Rai
Career Box Office Gross: Upwards of Rs 85 crore
Biggest Hit: Devdas (2002), Rs 33 crore
Blockbuster strike rate: One in Five films
Aishwarya Rai does not have as impressive a career record in terms of blockbuster hits as some of her contemporaries. Priety Zinta for example scores a big hit once every three films, as compared to Aishwarya's one out of five. But the record gets better with time. She is considered to be the only leading lady in Bollywood who can carry a film on her own - i.e. without a big name leading man. She is one of those rare female stars in recent times who has acted in two strong heroine-oriented films - Taal and Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. "She is breath taking. You can't take your eyes off Ash on screen," says Karan Johar. So you know why she is the highest paid actress around in spite of all the flop films she has acted in over the years.
These days, like Hema Malini in her hey day who insisted on equal screen footage with leading men, Aishwarya demands and gets equal billing and moolah. So what if her co-star happens to be Oscar nominated Aamir Khan? It is said that she recently walked out of Aamir's magnum opus The Rising because Aamir was getting Rs 7 crore and she wasn't. And now she's got the Hollywood talent management agency William Morris and Co. to negotiate on her behalf. Says Simone Sheffield of William Morrris, "Interest in Rai does not just come from Hollywood, but from the UK and French film markets, also. Rai could most definitely work 52 weeks a year, if she wished to do so. Besides Chaos with Meryl Streep, we have two offers on the table currently. Not to mention, the seven meetings that she's had while she was in Los Angeles completing Bride and Prejudice for Gurinder Chadha." Of course, in Bollywood, unlike a Waheeda Rehman or a Nutan in the old days, Aishwarya is still to do a memorable role.
The Rest of the List:
10: Ajay Devgan
11: Hrithik Roshan
12: A R Rahman
13: Mani Ratnam
14: Rani Mukherjee
15: Preity Zinta
16: Raj Kumar Santoshi
17: Subhash Ghai
18: Bharat Shah
19: Ramesh & Kumar Taurani
20: Rakesh Roshan
21: Salman Khan
22: Shyam & Balakrishna Shroff
23: Subroto Roy & Amar Singh
24: Vivek Oberoi
25: Sanjay Dutt
