'Moolah' rouge for Bollywood actresses

While there’s no denying that Bollywood continues to be a male-dominated industry with heroes being the power game players and the films still sold on their name, equations may finally be in for a change for the heroines, as women-centric  films are being just as celebrated as the herowaali films at the BO.

Actress Vidya Balan who single-handedly changed the dynamics first with the success of her film No One Killed Jessica along with Rani Mukerji, then with The Dirty Picture, and now Kahaani, says trade is largely responsible for heroine centric films being considered as viable a product as a hero based film. And though many insiders still feel that it’s still too early to talk about the money riding on the heroines when the real stars are the heroes, there’s a section that feels that with heroines also directly affecting the rates at which a film is being sold is reason enough to take them seriously.

In this, actresses Kareena Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, Priyanka Chopra, Vidya, Deepika Padukone, and Sonakshi Sinha are the key players. “A majority of the films are still sold on the name of the heroes and traditionally they are the ones who dictate the film’s market price, but there’s no denying that today the names of some of the heroines matter just as much. And in this the heroines belonging to the 100 crore club or those leading brand endorsement deals have more weight at the BO. So, even if a film is not sold on their name, the fact that the film stars one of these heroines does add value to the film literally,” explains a senior distributor, adding, “Today a film starring Kareena or Vidya or PC is likely to be sold at a higher price than the films starring other actors.”

So, insist several trade observers, it won’t be unfair to take a stock of the money that’s riding on these glam girls of Bollywood. “Though in the case of heroines, the money riding on them  is purely a reflection of the films in hand, and not the real star power nor does it reflect who the number one is,” says trade analyst Vajir Singh.

So, keeping just the sheer number of films in hand, while in the top rung are Kareena, Katrina and Priyanka, followed by Deepika and Vidya, the real surprise topper here is the two-film-old Sonakshi who has the maximum  number of biggies in hand and so more money on her, which helps her shoot ahead of everyone in the top bracket.

However, unlike Kareena or Katrina, trade points out, her name is yet to add the weight or star power to a project. “Sonakshi may have two Rs 100-crore films to her name, but she is yet to do that one film where she is at par with the hero or that affects the price of a film in the market. But at the same time, it cannot be overlooked that she has some of the biggest releases to her name,” adds an insider, explaining, “On the other hand, though Vidya has only two films in hand and that too
not mega-budget films, her name has a bigger draw both with the audience and the distributors.”

Trade analyst Taran Adarsh agrees. “So, far Vidya, Kareena, PC and Katrina are the only actresses to have films riding on their name, so their stocks would be considered higher than any other heroine,” he says, adding, “But the most interesting thing here is that today we have films that are being sold considering the
heroine name as well, which is encouraging.”