Why are Bollywood Stars suddenly turning "entrepreneurs"? An analysis

A lot of Indian actors are starting to position themselves as "entrepreneurs" lately. Many are even getting involved with startups directly. Do you wonder why?

This sudden rush towards entrepreneurship isn't really a "diversification move" as the PR suggests. It's actually a last ditch effort of self preservation.

The business model of an actor is changing, fast. Until recently, an actor used to charge an exorbitant fee for a movie, and that used to be his primary bread and butter. Now that film used to provide not just money, but also something far more critical to the whole economic engine - visibility. Brand power. Leverage. This "star power" used to bring in the other ancillary sources of income like endorsements, events, private shows, and so on.

Times were good. Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar, etc. have reportedly charged between ₹80-130 Cr/film in the last 5 years. Folks like Ranbir Kapoor, Hrithik Roshan, Ajay Devgn, etc. took ₹40-60 Cr/film. And then came in the endorsements. At any moment, a "star" ran 15-25 active brand endorsements, each fetching ₹3-10 Cr/year.

This dream run continued, even though the ticket sales stopped paying for it. Cinema halls started going cold, yet producers kept the money tap on. Why? Because of the long held belief that "stars" are the ones who get people to the seats.

Now the market is gradually realizing the truth. It's a bit late in reacting, but it's eventually figuring out that the "stars" can't save the falling cinema attendance anymore. Whatever problems exist for the industry, "stars" are not the fix. Not even close.

So what happens now?

Well, the reality is coming to bite the actors, and hard. And that's why they're changing course. The latency in the market response to the cause of the industry's decline hasn't yet forced them to pivot altogether. But the questions are clear:

Nobody watches their movies anymore. So what visibility?

And soon, people will have to stop paying them like before. So what money?

With movies stopping the supply of the much needed prestige, brand power and visibility, a lot of people think that these stars can just go to Social Media. After all, everybody is on social media, right? But that's precisely the problem as well - Everybody is on social media. If these stars come down to fight in this market of "likes & shares", they'll be effectively competing with someone like Superstar Rajesh from Saharanpur. What happens to their "mystique" when they do that?

What we are looking at is a full blown demolition of "stars". And thank god! Because it is exactly what was holding the Indian Cinema back. Terrible films year after year, decade after decade, were pushed down the Average Aakash's throats because of this "star power" driven machinery. With this out of the way, Indian producers and thus the industry will be forced to give dues to the actual stars - writers.

Indian writers never got paid. Neither in money, nor visibility. Now they will.

This is good.

P.S. You just read an honest (and hopefully valuable) article for free. If you like reading my writing, please consider making donations. Amounts don't matter, gestures do. Here's a big cheers to all my Patrons!

Read more articles here.