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Global
India's Celebrity Film Stars NEW YORK - You've probably never heard of Amitabh
Bachchan, known as Big B in India, but when the BBC last year
conducted a poll on its Web site to select a "Star of the Millennium," he
easily beat out Charlie Chaplin and Marlon Brando to run off
with the title. It may also surprise you to know that the Indian
film industry, centered in an area of Bombay known as Bollywood, produces
more films per year than any other country in the world. With between 800
films and 900 films hitting the screen every year, these movies are a
cinematic staple throughout Asia but are relatively unknown to audiences
in the U.S. While India's biggest celebrity actors are treated
like royalty by an adoring public, they are also the subject of the kind
of media gossip that would make a National Enquirer reporter blush.
The most popular Indian actors earn about one-twentieth of what their
American counterparts make, with top earner Bachchan reportedly barely
cracking $1 million per film. And production costs for a Bollywood film
are miniscule when weighed against the Hollywood standard. The budget for
an Indian blockbuster tops out around $4 million, whereas comparable
American films routinely exceed $100 million. But India's film industry puts ours to shame in
terms of the drama that takes place behind the camera. Feuds between
actors are carried out in public and often reach epic proportions; death
threats, assaults, extortion attempts and murky financing are all part of
the game. In the past couple of months, the government has
made several high-profile arrests and started an investigation into the
involvement of organized crime in the film industry. Two key players,
director Nadeem Rizvi and Bharat Shah, a film producer and
one of India's leading diamond merchants, have been charged so far. And
allegations ranging from illegal funding from Pakistani terrorists to
actors being forced to accept roles at reduced fees have gripped the
nation. Forthwith, Forbes presents the five most powerful
Indian film stars. Our power rankings are based on a proprietary formula
weighing salary, number of press clips returned on Lexis-Nexis, and by
gauging popularity from searches on Dow Jones Interactive and Google.com.
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