Kangana becomes India’s highest paid actress, will take home Rs 24 crore for J Jayalalithaa biopic

Kangana Ranaut will become the highest paid female actor in Bollywood by a large margin with her upcoming film, the J Jayalalithaa biopic titled Thalaivi.

Actor Kangana Ranaut is on her way to become the highest paid female actor of India. She will reportedly be paid Rs 24 crore for playing former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa in an upcoming film based on the Tamil actor-politician’s life.

According to a source close to the project, “Kangana is being paid to the tune of Rs 24 crore for the bilingual project, which will be made in Hindi and Tamil. The makers are sure that her star power will help reach a pan-India audience. The producers have already signed a contract with her.” Titled Thalaivi in Tamil and Jaya in Hindi, the film will be directed by Vijay and written by KV Vijayendra Prasad.

The Rs 24 crore fee is an unprecedented figure for any female actor in the country. It is almost twice the amount that Deepika Padukone received for playing the lead character in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmaavat. Deepika reportedly took home Rs 13 crore for the film while the film’s male leads, Ranveer Singh and Shahid Kapoor took home Rs 10 crore.

Reportedly, even Kareena Kapoor Khan is currently charging Rs 10 crore as her fees after the success of Veere Di Wedding. A report, published in Mid-Day in August 2018, quoted a source, “Though Veere was a four-girl project, the film’s opening and initial footfalls can be credited to Kareena’s stardom. It is only fair that she capitalise on her star power, which is why she has increased her fee for the next few films. She apparently charged a ballpark figure of Rs 7 crore for Veere Di Wedding. Her upcoming films will have her quoting Rs 10 crore-plus, negotiable depending on the number of days she is required to work on the project and the value she is bringing to the table.”

Kangana Ranaut along with media celebrates her 32 birthday at her residence in Mumbai.(AFP)

The same report said Priyanka Chopra signed Salman Khan’s Bharat for Rs 6.5 crore (a film which she quit later) and Kangana was asking for Rs 11 crore as her fees earlier but slashed it for Simran and Rangoon.

Talking about the Jayalalithaa biopic, Kangana told the media on her birthday that she always wanted to work in regional films. “I always wanted to work in regional films because when we go to Tamil Nadu or Andhra Pradesh, we realise that people over there only watch films made by their local film industry. So there is a disconnect with that part of the country. I was waiting for a good opportunity to work over there and this film just came my way.

“I was working on my own biopic, but her (Jayalalithaa) story is very similar to my story. In fact, it is a bigger success story than mine. When I heard the narration of this film, I found many similarities between both the stories. So when I had the option to do a film based on her story or my story, I decided on the former.”

On whether she will learn Tamil for the film, she said: “Yes...Unless I fail miserably and they (the makers of the film) have to look for an option for my dubbing. But I will definitely learn the language.”

(Source: HT)

Kangana Ranaut takes on Hrithik Roshan, Karan Johar in new AIB video

Kangana Ranaut exposes the treatment meted out to heroines in Bollywood in her new video.

Kangana Ranaut is unstoppable. She did not hesitate to take on influential people in Bollywood, be it Hrithik Roshan or Karan Johar. Now, in her new video in collaboration with All India Bakchod (AIB), Kangana is calling out the sexism in the Hindi film industry.

It starts with Kangana going to her director to talk about an absurdity in her lines. However, he fails to recognise her, even when she introduces herself as the "female lead". It is only when she says "love interest" that it rings a bell.

Kangana takes on bizarre lyrics of popular songs when she points out the absurdity of the line, "Mere seene pe mal de Iodex hothon se" (if you spot a similarity with the lyrics of Munni Badnaam or Fevicol Se, you are bang on!) She reasons that her character is a physicist, but the director dismisses her with "Audience ko titillate karogi tabhi toh hit hoga na!"

The hero enters, in the style of Shah Rukh Khan in Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, and is given God-like treatment - he is literally welcomed with a pooja ki thali. He makes the exact same suggestion that Kangana does, which is instantly accepted as a pearl of wisdom.

Kangana then decides to speak her mind in the song, a tweaked version of Chittiyan Kalaiyan Re titled Cause I Have Vagina Re. She takes jibes at Bollywood's idea of a "modern ladki" - she smokes and swears, but is objectified, all the same. The emancipation is superficial - she may be a scientist in Poland, but she is reduced only to a love interest.

There is a jibe at Shah Rukh Khan. It is widely known that he puts the actress's name before his in the credits of his films. When the hero in the song argues, "Put your name before the hero's," Kangana hits back, "Still your paycheck has more zeroes."

The Queen actor also takes on the practice of 50-something Bollywood heroes romancing 20-somethings on screen. "Main toh hoon kitni young-young, Iss buddhe ke sang, Buzurg hai mera piya, It's almost paedophilia," she lip-syncs. She continues that while actresses lose their career when they get married, the actors they once romanced continue to be numero uno. As the actors get paired with girls young enough to be their daughters, the actresses end up endorsing household products like washing powder.

The song would be incomplete without a jibe at Hrithik and KJo, and Kangana does not disappoint. "Papa ne tujhko launch kiya ve, Main boli toh tune taunt kiya ve, tu karti victim play." It's no secret that most of Hrithik's biggest hits have been directed by his father, from his debut film Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai to Koi Mil Gaya to Krrish. There's also a reference to Karan, who accused her of playing the "victim card" when she called him out for his nepotism.

The video saves the best for the last, giving the message that in Bollywood, actresses are easily dispensible at the whim of the hero.

(Source: India Today)

Kangana Ranaut is a feminist icon, but her breakup isn't a feminist issue

Kangana Ranaut's unapologetically progressive choices have us ready to applaud her every move. So it's disappointing that we're mostly being made to applaud the messy end of a messy affair, writes Deepanjana Pal on Buzzfeed. Read on: 

"She'll say anything and everything," said a grinning gent who works at a wine shop in Bandra. He'd been watching clips from Ranaut's appearance in Aap ki Adalat on his phone.

"Her problem is that she thinks she's Salman Khan, but there's only one Bhai."

The comparison seemed a little unfair, I said, without getting into details (like Khan being the exact opposite of an outsider in Bollywood, and singularly lacking in the acting department).

"See, she thinks she can get away with doing anything, but it's not that easy," he explained.

Indeed it isn't, but Khan's version of "anything" was allegedly running over a homeless man, I pointed out.

We, the public, are shameless gossips, but Ranaut has chosen to feed the beast.
"Haan," he nodded, "so she's doing the same to Hrithik Roshan, right?"

Ouch.

Thanks to the interviews she’s done promoting her new film (Simran releases tomorrow), Ranaut is a hot topic again, but not for particularly professional reasons. Every interview that Ranaut has given of late has been a platform to talk about two men from her past: Aditya Pancholi and Hrithik Roshan, with a significant emphasis on the latter.

The largest chunk in each of her recent interviews has been about Roshan — her recollections of conversations, anecdotes about Valentine’s Day spats, allegations that he hacked her email, stories about birthday parties together, anger at his father’s inaction, and an oft-repeated demand that the Roshans apologise to her.

We, the public, are shameless gossips, but Ranaut has also chosen to feed the beast. She’s insisted on talking about this episode and hasn’t even pretended that it has any connection to Simran.

So much so that, to this wine shop Bandra man and many of the rest of us, Kangana Ranaut in 2017 is most defined by an anti-Hrithik Roshan stand, rather than any of the others she’s taken over her decade in Bollywood. And there have been many.

Her distinctly fearless habit of calling out every layer of misogyny and oppression in a deeply misogynistic and oppressive film industry has built in us, rightly, an instinct to applaud her every word. There is no doubt that her story — that of an outsider who battled exploitation, abuse, sexism, and exclusion and rose to the top — is worth applauding.

The upside of this is that we hang on every word she says. The downside is that there is no room for nuance.

Because now, in her unprecedented position of awesomeness and influence, she has chosen to make gossip about ex-lover Hrithik Roshan the centerpiece of her persona.

We've come to expect more from Ranaut because there are so few actresses in Bollywood whom we can turn to for feminist fist-bumps — most of them are scared of the word 'feminist'. It feels disappointing that Ranaut just wants to discuss her heartbreak.

An effective PR strategy has equated criticising Kangana Ranaut with criticising womanhood itself.
From Vir Sanghvi to Karan Johar, there’s a long list of influential people who have sly-tweeted or commented disapprovingly at Ranaut for raking up what is essentially an ex-lover's spat. The fact that they won’t address her directly speaks volumes about the stature that Ranaut has earned today.

To criticise her, as Sona Mohapatra discovered, is to unleash a torrent of righteous outrage. Mohapatra’s claim that Ranaut was doing a “disservice to feminism” by talking about her past relationships is excessive. Ranaut’s sister Rangoli’s counter attack (“you are a black spot on womanhood”) is equally over the top, but fits into an effective PR strategy that has equated criticising Kangana Ranaut with criticising womanhood itself.

How did this happen?

If we discovered her as an actress in Queen, Ranaut’s celebrity status came as a result of how she gave provocative, honest answers on national platforms with casual ease.

Stand by stand, Ranaut became our feminist hero.
When she said on Koffee With Karan that she wanted to be a heroine in her own right and not via working with a Khan; when she told Hindustan Times that she’ll never endorse fairness creams because it would be irresponsible in “a country of brown people”; when she told Pinkvilla that she won’t do item songs because she wants to correct the path prescribed to Bollywood actresses; when she spoke honestly about her own struggles; stand by stand, Ranaut became our feminist hero.

She's grown from strength to strength in a near-unbroken string of films with her in the lead, no male superstar billing above her. She's fought misogynist relatives, directors, producers, actors and even misogynistic audiences. Some battles she's lost, others she's won and, through it all, she's survived. And now, she is flexing her muscles, as is her right.

But now, with us all hanging on her every word, the really relevant point about heroines being treated shoddily by the film industry has remained restricted to lip-syncing All India’s Bakchod lyrics in The Bollywood Diva Song, while her interviews have been dominated by details of how Roshan allegedly blubbered to Ranaut.

Talking about a past relationship is not inherently irrelevant. Consider, for contrast to the Hrithik story, Ranaut’s relationship with Aditya Pancholi.

It says a lot about our acceptance of violence against women that Pancholi hasn't shocked the public as much as Roshan has.
Ranaut met Pancholi as a teenager who had just arrived in Mumbai looking to make it as an actor. She says he offered her an apartment and that was the start of an abusive relationship, with Pancholi stalking her and even hitting her on some occasions. Ultimately, it was a police order that would force him to stay away from her.

(Pancholi's response to these allegations has been to circulate copies of his daughter's Aadhaar card to prove Ranaut is not a year younger than his daughter, as she has claimed, but a year older. Classy.)

Even if the story is approximately a decade old, it is a brave one for Ranaut to have shared, and an important one to hold in the public consciousness. Indian society mutely accepts violence against women and the predatory advances of sleazy men who present themselves as guardians. Women are socialised into accepting victimhood, to which Ranaut's response was:

It says a lot about our general acceptance of violence against women — and Pancholi’s reputation perhaps — that these revelations haven’t shocked the public or got tongues wagging with as much enthusiasm as the details Ranaut has served up of an extramarital affair she claims she and Hrithik Roshan had.

Unlike the episode with Pancholi, there's no larger takeaway from the Roshan-Ranaut exchange. It’s an extramarital affair that ended in an ego battle.

This is sad for Ranaut and she has every right to talk about it, but let’s be clear on one point: by doing so she's adding to gossip fodder, not feminist discourse.

But to point that out, or to levy any criticism of her at all, is seen as being anti-Ranaut and therefore anti-woman in general.

So then you try to stand with her, only to feel that prickling sense of hesitation because what exactly are you standing up for? Extramarital affairs? Better security protocol for Gmail? What is it that's expected of us, beyond an ear for her story of past heartbreak?

The fact is, Ranaut isn't obliged to be a feminist icon every time she steps out of her house and in front of the microphone.

Ranaut isn't obliged to be a feminist icon every time she steps out of her house.
She can also be an apolitical woman who wants her ex-lover to acknowledge her.

She can be a strategist who believes there's more to gain from talking about herself than her film.

She can be a diva who is difficult to work with; just as she may have to beat her head against patriarchy’s inability to accept the idea of a woman with a working brain. One doesn't make the other invalid. All of them together make a human being.

In the last five years, India has seen the mainstreaming of demands for women’s rights. In the same period, Ranaut has been one of our brightest lights in the struggle to get society to value women's stories. Losing sight of that just because she wants to indulge in a little gossip and some ex-bashing would be a shame.

But lauding the gossip and ex-bashing as feminist discourse would be just as shameful for our collective ability to see nuance in feminism.

Now to say a prayer for Simran and hope it has the feminist gaze and sensitivity that we’ve come to expect of a film that boasts of Ranaut and only Ranaut.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Kabir Khan, Karan Johar top Nepotism Index

Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Kabir Khan and Karan Johar score highest among Bollywood directors on the nepotism index

Ever since film actor Kangana Ranaut drew attention to nepotism in Bollywood earlier this year, the issue has continued to attract attention. Hardly any interview with a Bollywood celebrity is complete these days without that customary question on nepotism.

In an attempt to quantify the extent of nepotism in the industry, and to measure how nepotism varies across production houses, Mint has developed a Nepotism Index, based on the share of insiders (those with Bollywood family connections) cast as leads. As the chart below shows, nepotism is prevalent across production houses, with Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment Ltd leading the charts. The production houses of Ajay Devgn and Shah Rukh Khan (Red Chillies Entertainment Ltd) follow close behind.

Nadiadwala Grandson scores the highest on the Nepotism Index

The Nepotism Index has been constructed by taking into account the percentage of Bollywood insiders who played the lead roles (male and female lead) in films produced by these ten major production houses over the last five years (2012-16).

27.03

T-Series

10

20

30

40

46.15

Nadiadwala Grandson

44.44

Ajay Devgan Films

42.86

Red Chillies Entertainment

40

Balaji Motion Pictures

36.84

Yash Raj Films

36.11

Dharma Productions

33.33

Fox Star Studios

29.17

Excel Entertainment

29.09

UTV

27.03

T-Series

Source: Official websites of production houses, Mint research Get the data Created with Datawrapper

The analysis of production houses is based on data for 10 large film production houses in the country, which cumulatively accounted for an overwhelming majority of super-hit films over the past five years. Data from Bollywoodhungama.com was used to arrive at the top 10 revenue-grosser in each year from 2012 to 2016. Once the top production houses were identified, data on leads for the past five years was sourced from the official websites of the production houses.

UTV scores low on the Nepotism Index partly because it co-produces many movies with independent producers and directors. Yash Raj Films Pvt. Ltd has a low score thanks to its subsidiary, Y-films, which has produced films such as Mere Dad in Maruti and Mujhse Fraaandship Karoge targeted at a younger audience. T-Series Pvt. Ltd appears to be the least nepotistic among the top producers.

The Nepotism Index only serves as a rough gauge of the power of connections in Bollywood. Even though some Bollywood dynasts may have been initially selected for a film role because of their connections, some of them may have flourished in the industry because they have delivered hits, and are seen as bankable stars by producers. Also, stars such as Shah Rukh Khan are technically ‘outsiders’, and have been considered as such in this analysis. But today they wield as much clout as any Bollywood insider.

Given that directors have as much say, if not more, in the casting of leads, it also makes sense to look at the Nepotism Index for leading film directors of Bollywood. The directors considered for the analysis include both big-budget film directors who work for the top production houses, as well as directors such as Anurag Kashyap and Vishal Bharadwaj who lead smaller production houses of their own, and have won critical acclaim for some of their films in recent years.

The analysis shows that Sanjay Leela Bhansali, known for making big-budget films, scores highest on the Nepotism Index. He is followed closely by Kabir Khan (of Ek Tha Tiger and Bajrangi Bhaijaan fame) and Karan Johar, whom Ranaut had criticized for promoting nepotism when she was interviewed by Johar on his talk show Koffee with Karan.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali scores highest on the Nepotism Index for directors

The Nepotism Index has been constructed by taking into account the share (%) of insiders (those with family connections in Bollywood) who played the lead roles (male and female) in the last five films directed by the following top ten directors

23.08

Farah Khan

20

40

60

62.5

Sanjay Leela Bhansali

57.14

Kabir Khan

54.55

Karan Johar

54.55

Zoya Akhtar

45.45

Rohit Shetty

44.44

Rajkumar Hirani

33.33

Vishal Bhardwaj

28.57

Anurag Kashyap

28.57

Imtiaz Ali

23.08

Farah Khan

Source: Official websites of production houses and directors, Mint research Get the data Created with Datawrapper

Directors of big-budget films seem to prefer working with insiders or established stars. Their low risk appetite in experimenting with new actors perhaps stems partly from the higher financial stakes involved. In contrast, directors such as Bharadwaj and Kashyap, who typically produce and direct relatively small-budget films, seem to be more comfortable in casting outsiders as their leads.

Kashyap, who has launched actors without Bollywood family connections such as Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Richa Chadda, has among the lowest scores on the Nepotism Index. Only Imtiaz Ali and Farah Khan have scores equal to or lower than him.

There is also a gender aspect to this issue. Male lead actors, who typically play the central, pivotal characters, are more likely to be insiders. With the exception of Shah Rukh Khan and Akshay Kumar, most of the other male leads—Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, Ranbir Kapoor, Ajay Devgn, Saif Ali Khan, for instance—come from families with connections to Bollywood. In contrast, the secondary nature of their roles in Bollywood films makes it relatively easier for female outsiders.

Ajay Devgan's production house is the most nepotistic when it comes to male actors

The chart below shows the share (%) of insiders for male leads in Bollywood films produced over the period 2012-16 by these ten production houses

30.77

Excel Entertainment

50

100

100

Ajay Devgan Films

60

Nadiadwala Grandson

52.63

Balaji Motion Pictures

47.62

Dharma Productions

42.11

T-Series

38.46

Yash Raj Films

38.10

Fox Star Studios

37.93

UTV

33.33

Red Chillies Entertainment

30.77

Excel Entertainment

Source: Websites of production houses, Mint research Get the data Created with Datawrapper

Shah Rukh Khan's production house is most likely to cast Bollywood insiders as female leads

The chart below shows the share (%) of insiders who played female leads in Bollywood films produced over the period 2012-16 by these ten production houses

11.11

T-Series

20

40

50

Red Chillies Entertainment

33.33

Yash Raj Films

28.57

Ajay Devgan Films

27.27

Nadiadwala Grandson

27.27

Excel Entertainment

26.67

Fox Star Studios

25

Balaji Motion Pictures

20

Dharma Productions

19.23

UTV

11.11

T-Series

Source: Websites of production houses, Mint research Get the data Created with Datawrapper

The median share of insiders cast as male leads by the top production houses over the past five years is as high as 40%. For female leads, the median share is relatively lower at 27%.

One important caveat to note is that all industry connections are not exactly equal even though they have been treated as such in the analysis for the sake of simplicity. Both Shreyas Talpade and Kareena Kapoor have been considered as insiders in this analysis. However, Talpade’s level of access, which comes from his two aunts who are actors, cannot be compared to Kapoor’s privilege. Ranveer Singh may appear to be an outsider, but he happens to be Sonam Kapoor’s cousin. Many consider Deepika Padukone, with her familiarity with industry figures, to be as much of an insider as someone from a Bollywood family. Both Padukone and Amitabh Bachchan, son of a renowned Hindi poet, have been considered as outsiders in the analysis, though they are privileged.

That said the broad trends seem to suggest that producers and directors of big-budget films are more likely to be nepotistic. Relying on Bollywood dynasties does not seem to have hurt their top lines, at least so far.

(Source: Live Mint)

Women who dare to be disliked

There are many reasons to admire Kangana Ranaut—her acting prowess, her stylish good looks, her gumption, her self-made journey to stardom from a village in Manali to the razzmatazz of Mumbai, how she slept on pavements when she had to, fought physical abuse from an early mentor, taught herself English and the confidence with which she wears her outsider status in an incestuous, insular industry. But none of this is why I like Kangana. I like her because she doesn’t give a damn about not being liked.

Fiercely independent women who make it on their own terms and refuse to conform to other people’s expectations of them are routinely disliked—and incidentally, by both men and women—because patriarchy and misogyny are the one thing that is gender-neutral. When you can’t fit a complex woman on the inside of a neat little box that can be pinned with a red bow and kept away; when your labels run short, when the worst you say about her (whore, bitch, slut, gold-digger, unstable, crazy, vulgar) doesn’t break her self-esteem; when your fantasy that even if she is successful, she must be so lonely gets challenged; when there is no man, picket fence, child or dog to complete your version of what her family portrait should look like and when your toxic whispers are unable to crush her individualism or flatten her into submission—all you are left to attack her with is dislike. Women who succeed—and especially those who do so by drafting their own rules—must be ready to grow the thickest hide possible and embrace their unpopularity. Kangana is one such person.

For me this is not about something as narrow or specific as the nepotism debate (full disclosure: Karan Johar is a dear friend); as the media-professional daughter of a journalist I can hardly hold forth on that with honesty. Nor is it about who is right and wrong in the intimate battle between Hrithik Roshan and Kangana. But while she gathers kudos in public every time she fights back, the truth is that Kangana is constantly deconstructed in the most unflattering terms and often in full public gaze. She has been vilified on social media, mocked in swish drawing rooms and, of course, had both her mental health and her sexual morality questioned.

Every time I praise Kangana or she has come on one of my shows, there is enormous admiration from one section of viewers, but intense pushback from another, including many of her industry colleagues. I have been accused of foisting undeserved feminist iconography onto her persona; I have been told she is an illusionist living a deluded life. I have heard way more than I need to know about her personal proclivities—true or false, I have no idea. She has been smeared, abused, made fun of and yes, sometimes, even socially shunned by her fraternity. She is prefixed to controversy, real or manufactured—an age-old trolling tool to silence women who prefer to smash the status quo.

Yet, she has remained unchanged and unbent, utterly comfortable with her own imperfections, angularities, eccentricities and weaknesses and absolutely self-possessed and anchored by her own strength. Not once has she surrendered to peer pressure and adapted her personality to ‘fit in’. She has remained stubbornly individualistic. She has remained herself. The rest be damned.

Among women, very few of us are able to withstand that sort of public and personal pressure. But once you do, and other people’s opinions about you cease to matter, you discover a genuine sense of liberation. Isn’t that what feminism is all about—freedom?

So here’s my toast to women who dare to be disliked.

(Source: The Week)