Flush With Cash, Bollywood Glows

"WHO gives us clout?" Shahrukh Khan, the actor also known as King of Bollywood, asked during a recent interview here. He quickly answered the query himself. "It's the last mile, the audience. My logic is this: Can you beat me at the box office?"In the last 15 years few have challenged Mr. Khan at the top of the Bollywood box office. His string of blockbusters has given him such clout — as well as wax statues in his honor at Madame Tussauds in London and the Musée Gravin in Paris — that India Today, one of the country's leading newsmagazines, placed the 42-year-old Mr. Khan at No. 6 in its annual power list in February. He may have ranked below the billionaire Ambani brothers, but he came in ahead of the former president A. P. J. Abdul Kalam. And it was no accident that that the most powerful man in the Hindi film industry is an actor. In Bollywood the motion picture industry remains resolutely star struck, even as special effects have helped to reduce Hollywood's dependence on big-name actors. "There is a variety of ways in which a picture gets made in Hollywood, but I can say without qualification that in Hindi pictures stars are the determining factor much more than they are in Los Angeles," said Michael Lynton, the chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which helped produce "Saawariya" ("Beloved"), the first Hollywood-Bollywood studio collaboration. Five men dominate the business in Bollywood: Shahrukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Salman Khan (the Khans are not related), Akshay Kumar and Hrithik Roshan. Each of these stars function almost as a one-man studio, with an in-house production company. Two of the most successful films in 2007 — "Om Shanti Om" and "Tare Zameen Par" ("Stars on Earth") — were produced by the companies of Shahrukh Khan ("Om") and Aamir Khan ("Tare"). The last holdout to the production game, Mr. Kumar, co-produced his latest release, "Singh Is Kinng," which set a Bollywood record by making $15 million in its opening weekend earlier this month.Revolving around these stars are favored directors, producers, writers and stylists. And if their films aren't playing in cinemas, the actors are on television selling products or presenting shows. (Mr. Kumar, Shahrukh Khan and Salman Khan are among India's highest-paid television hosts.) "A star guarantees the first weekend box office, and it is this business which decides all the other revenue streams," said Kishore Lulla, chief executive of Eros International, Bollywood's largest overseas distributor. "Without a star it's too risky." Eros plans to produce and finance 50 films over the next year. The company raised $100 million from the Alternative Investment Market on the London Stock Exchange and another $100 million from Citibank and is redirecting substantial funds into several star-led "business adventures," to use Mr. Kumar's expression.