Bollywood's best paid heroines

MUMBAI: You thought discrimination against women in payment of wages was only a problem in the brick kilns of Haryana. Think again. Gender biases exist even in the film industry where one would have thought the caravan has moved on for female actors playing ''item numbers''.
An examination of salaries of top performers in Bollywood show the discrepancy between male and female stars is massive. The thumb-rule is: the lead female actor gets paid approximately one-third her film hero.
And it is getting worse. As the Hindi film industry finds itself in a bind of increasing number of ageing heroes (Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan, Sanjay Dutt, Aamir Khan and Salman Khan), the heroine brigade (Isha Koppikar, Amrita Arora, Antara Mali) are getting younger all the time.
An ideal situation for the old war horses to call the shots! But then the squeezed budgets of producers will tell on the new ''item numbers''!
A quick survey of star salaries in the film industry revealed the following: Aamir Khan is the highest paid – Rs 5 crore for The Rising plus 10 per cent of the profits.

But that is because he is extremely choosy and does just one film in a year. Expectedly, Shahrukh Khan is also at the top and commands a market of around Rs 4 crore. He too is choosy, doing just two or three films in a year with chosen producer-directors such as Yash Chopra, Karan Johar or a Sanjay Leela Bhansali.
The other toppers are not far behind – Hrithik Roshan (Rs 3.5 crore a movie), Salman and Saif Ali (Rs 3 crore), Ajay Devagan and Akshay Kumar (Rs 2.5 crore).
On the other hand, the top actresses command half or one-third these rates. At the top of the table is Aishwarya Rai, valued at Rs 2.5 crore a movie, Preity Zinta and Kajol at around Rs 1.5 crore, followed by Rani Mukherji and Kareena at Rs 1.25 crore each.
The new teeny boppers would be in the Rs 50-80 lakh range. (These rates are standard commercial quotes; and actors of both gender have a much lower rate card for directors like Mani Ratnam or a Govind Nihlani or offbeat movies that have something to say but which command little commercial value.)
"The scene has shifted from the 1960s and the black-and-white days when both there was little difference between a Madhubala or Meena Kumari, on one hand, and Dev Anand and Dilip Kumar, on the other. Both were paid around a lakh. In fact, Nargis would sometimes command a higher rate than the top actors," recounted Amit Khanna, a film industry spokesperson who comes closest to a Bollywood historian.

Top industry names are a bit shame-faced about this disparity, but explain it away as "market forces". "Our industry makes male-oriented films. The films sell on the male actor, unfortunately, and it is a reflection of society. The action and the story comes through the male hero. The lead actress provides the emotional support," says Mukta Arts chairman and well-known producer Subhash Ghai.
A film territory will sell at Rs 4 crore for a blockbuster with both Shahrukh and Aishwarya; but Shahrukh Khan on his own is good enough to sell a movie at Rs 3.5 crore a territory, points out film consultant Sanjay Bhatacherjii.
"Very few box-office successes are female-oriented films. It is not fair; but the only way to remedy the situation is to have a higher ratio of successful films with female leads," says character actor Shabana Azmi.
"Its a male chauvinist set up," admits Khanna, but adds in the same breath that Bollywood is just part of the international trend.
"The only exceptions to the rule in Hollywood is Nicole Kidman and Julia Roberts; but otherwise Hollywood actresses too get paid half what their male counterparts get," points out Azmi.