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Bollywood stars are raking in more as brand ambassadors than by acting in films, says Vimla Patil
Akshay Kumar not only gave three back-to-back hits last year, but he also became the highest paid star in Bollywood with a reported fee of Rs 20 crore to Rs 30 crore per film. And hold your breath – now comes the news that he will get a whopping Rs 1.5 crore per day for endorsing Spykar jeans. "If he works two days for the project, he gets Rs 3 crore and if the shoot lasts six days, he gets Rs 9 crore," say Bollywood insiders. Akki is happy to oblige his school friend Sanjay Vakharia, who is the Marketing Director of the brand, which symbolises youth and its aspirations. Though the sum of Rs 1.5 crore per day of work is the current high-water mark of the advertising world, Bollywood stars have been known to earn much more from their endorsements than from the feature films they make every year. Indeed, the two richest men in the entertainment industry, Shahrukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan, are widely known to have fortunes worth Rs 500 crore because of their endorsements — not because of their films. Shahrukh has actually launched his production company Red Chillies Entertainment based on his income from endorsements and also produced films and provided special effects for many films from this company. By the sheer number of products, Amitabh Bachchan tops the list among Bollywood stars. From colas, chocolates, suitings, jewellery and pens to ayurvedic tonics like Chavanprash, he has lent his name and personality to a spectrum of products that covers the hi-end as well as middle-class consumers. In fact, whenever a product is in trouble – such as Cadbury Chocolates because of bad lab reports – Mr B is called upon to do a clean-up job by saying lines that say, "Hum kehte hain`85." Market experts believe that this helps immensely in reinstating the image of the product in the minds of the consumers. Big B has thus been roped in to support even relatively middle market products like Navratan Hair Oil, Hajmola tables, Sona Chandi Chavanprash and brands of chewing gums. Shahrukh Khan is not far behind. From colas to suitings, cell phones to televisions, cars to computers, soaps to watches, he endorses a huge range of products, raking in about Rs 150 crore every year. This makes him the highest annual earner as a ‘model’in the advertising world. The figure quoted for Amitabh Bachchan is somewhat lower at Rs 120 crore per year. Aishwarya Rai and Hrithik Roshan come next, notching up around Rs 100 crore with Hrithik being choosy about the products he supports and Ash sticking to diamonds and clothes which suits her position as the ‘world’s most beautiful woman’. Advertising masters give a very credible reason for the shift that top stars have made from feature films to endorsements. Most stars today believe that less is more. They are more choosy about the scripts and do not sign many films at a go. Moreover, the huge footprint of Bollywood worldwide makes the stars eminently suitable as models to add brand value to products of all kinds. Even stars like Ajay Devgan and Kajol, who shunned from endorsements earlier, have realised that the money is big and chosen to become couple models for the Whirlpool brand. This has resulted in the eclipse of professional models who are now relegated to ramps and designer shows. Even in fashion weeks and shows, Bollywood stars are called upon to walk the ramp to enhance the value of the designer concerned. If a star can do two quality films and earn about Rs 100 crore from a few days of endorsement shoots, it stands to reason that he or she will accept this as the ideal way to remain in the news — either on the big screen or the TV screen plus the print media. What’s more, there is no let-up in this trend. Marketing guru Prahlad Kakkar says the trend of stars earning more in the ad market than in the film market has come to stay. It’s easy money for the stars and celebrities. So why will they give up their privilege of earning huge money for working just for a few days for an endorsement? In fact, as our economy goes on a turbo-speed growth and more purchasing power comes to the 600 million strong middle class, the stars will be more in demand as models and, what’s more, they will earn even higher revenues.
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