STARS SALARY OUT OF CONTROL?

All of Mumbai’s filmdom has been in panic for the last six months, as films featuring even the big stars, have been faring badly at the box-office. Not one of the six big stars, who now charge anything between Rs 1 crore and 3 crore, have had a decent initial, let alone a hit.

The only star who has had a full house on the first three days of a film’s release, is Salman Khan whose Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya succeeded in having houseful shows during the first week. But its chances of sustaining the audience in coming weeks appears to be bleak, if people who have seen the film are to be believed. In three theatres in Mumbai I saw groups of young students who had rushed to see the film soon after they had finished their last exam, walking into the theatres in groups, and running out soon after the post interval scenes started. They loved the film only as long as Salman was at his entertaining best.

In short, people of all age groups are tired of seeing the same old stars doing the same old films. A random survey conducted by this writer in theatres all around the city of Mumbai during the last three weeks, proved that, but for Shah Rukh Khan, none of the other actors held any fascination for these youngsters. And this section of the younger audiences is very much aware of the huge prices the stars demand and they wonder if they are worth all that money. And like all those who are actively involved in the big business of Hindi film entertainment they feel “all those big heroes are certainly not worth the crores they demand and are paid by the spineless and gutless producers who have reduced themselves to slaves willing to surrender to any and all their whims and fancies. If they continue paying these stars their prices without any guarantee of returns their business will go kaput, finished. No business can work in this kind of haphazard atmosphere where just a handful of men are paid huge sums which they are not worth of because it has been proved time and again that they are not worth it” (the view of a serious student of mass communication who wants to get into filmmaking “but certainly not under the mad mad circumstances prevailing now").

A quick look at some of the big stars and how they have been “rejected outright” will give you a glimpse of the frightening picture that has sent a series of shocks through the nerves of the industry. "Not one of these great stars have been able to draw an initial on their own, then what right have they got to demand ek crore, do crore, teen crore? They should cut down their prices on moral grounds. But who will do that? Everyone is here just for the money and cinema is a neglected doll thrown in some corner with no one to care for her. It is this chaotic and killing scene that has kept so many from making films with these big stars. I have seen some of my best friends dying slow deaths because of this star system and their star prices. I am sure I want to live a little longer. Or atleast not die a dog’s death,” the leading filmmaker Prakash Mehra says. And Saawan Kumar who has just completed a film with Rekha, Randhir Kapoor, Rakesh Roshan and Jeetendra because of his fear of being “mauled” by the ruling young stars says: “Not one of these big crorepati stars can give me in writing that they will bring in the crowds on their own strength. If they do I will pay them three times their price.” He has been throwing this challenge at the stars for the last five years but not one of the stars has the confidence to accept it.

There are countless other men and women whose lives are in a mess because of the star system and their prices but not one of the associations nor a group of producers are strong enough to raise their already feeble voices. They prefer to suffer in silence.

The star scene is dismal today. Akshay Kumar has not had even an average hit during the last two years. Sunil Shetty is sailing in the same boat, almost staggering. Govinda who was considered a safe bet also had a hopeless Banarasi Babu. Nana Patekar, who was considered a big star after Tirangaa and Krantiveer had a flop in Ghulam-e-Musthafa and a disaster in Yugpurush. Even the rock-steady Sunny Deol slipped very badly with Zor. Shah Rukh is the only star who has had some big hits but the general opinion is that the films clicked because they were good and not becasue of his star power. And the big wait is for “The Big B” who has three big films lined up for release, Lal Badshah, Major Saab and Bade Miya Chhote Miya and the money involved in them is staggering. He failed badly the first time. Will he succeed now? There’s no talking about the female stars when it comes to talking business “because not even a Madhuri Dixit can bring in the crowds on her own”.

There are no takers at all for the hundred odd films made with newcomers and are rotting in the cans. And there is this producer who offered a ruling star a staggering Rs 2.5 crore just to do a 15-day guest appearance in a film. This is sheer madness. Some solution will have to be worked out before this whole industry is turned into a mad house like the mad house in Yugpurush, dim, dismal and on the way to destruction.