Amitabh, Salman, Akshay among world's top ten highest-paid actors

August 5, 2015

Washington, Aug 5: Indian superstars Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan and Akshay Kumar feature in the top 10 highest-paid actors in the world list, earning more than Hollywood legends Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Johnny Depp.

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The list of 34 global actors, which has been compiled by Forbes magazine, also includes superstar Shah Rukh Khan and Ranbir Kapoor. The Forbes's ranking of the 'World's Highest-Paid Actors' 2015 looked for the first outside the US to create a truly global dollar tally of film's leading men.

The list features 12 newcomers, five from India alone. Of the 34 actors, Indian stars comprised the largest number of listees after the US, earning a combined USD 140.5 million, Forbes said.

Bachchan and Salman each made USD 33.5 million to tie at 7th place, earning more than American actors Chris Pratt and Oscar winner "Gone Girl" actor Ben Affleck combined, "without being US household names."

Akshay, one of "Bollywood's busiest leading men", ranks 9th on the list with USD 32.5 million in annual earnings–equal to Hollywood A-listers George Clooney and Brad Pitt's combined haul in the same time frame, Forbes said.

Describing Shah Rukh as "India's Leonardo DiCaprio", Forbes ranked him 18th on the list with earnings of USD 26 million. Ranbir is ranked 30th on the list with USD 15 million earnings.

The list has been topped by actor Robert Downey Jr with earnings of USD 80 million that skyrocketed thanks to top-grossing movies such as "Avengers: Age of Ultron". On the second spot is Jackie Chan with earnings of USD 50 million, "Fast and Furious" actor Vin Diesel at the third spot with earnings of USD 47 million and "American Sniper" actor Bradley Cooper on the 4th position with USD 41.5 million in earnings.

Forbes said Bachchan, 72, "out-earns" the next oldest actor on the list, 63-year-old "Taken" star Liam Neeson, by USD 14 million, thanks to his roles in movies such as 2014's "Bhoothnath Returns".

Bachchan bolsters his earnings as the longstanding host of "Kaun Banega Crorepati", India's version of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire". The show recorded an average weekly viewership of 5.2 million in its 8th season, which aired in 2014, Forbes said.

Salman, 49, one of India's biggest star, tied with Bachchan despite a career trailed by controversies, including conviction for poaching of a blackbuck and a hit-and-run car incident which killed a homeless man.

His Being Human clothing line clocked USD 30 million in 2014 revenue, with proceeds going to his foundation. "Though such lawsuits may have doomed his career stateside, Khan maintains a loyal following, particularly among India's provincial moviegoers," Forbes said.

47-year-old Akshay, who makes an average of four movies a year, boasts a production schedule busier than most Hollywood or Bollywood stars.

He earned top rupee for roles in 2014 movies such as "Holiday" and "Entertainment" and bolstered his paycheck hosting Indian reality TV shows, it said.

Shah Rukh, also known as the King of Bollywood, makes the same amount as iconic Hollywood actor, producer and raper Will Smith and more than "Good Will Hunting" actor Matt Damon, "X-Men" actor Hugh Jackman or Oscar-winning actor Russel Crowe.

Ranbir's USD 15 million earning rounds out the Indian contingent. Though he made less than his compatriots, he still out-earned American actors Chris Pratt, Chris Evans and Hong Kong star Andy Lau.

The 32-year-old, one of Bollywood's top male actors and joins the World's Highest-Paid Actors list for the first time.On how do Bollywood's stars make so much money, Forbes said though Indian movies gross far less than US films at the box office, they recoup costs by selling satellite rights to TV channels. Unlike the US, where first dollar gross deals are a thing of the past, Bollywood stars continue to earn a cut of each film's ticketing revenue.

"Like their US counterparts, they also supplement movie pay with product endorsements. Though these tend to be less lucrative than American stars' seven figure deal, Bollywood's best tend to rep over 10 different products, some more glamorous than others," it said.

The measures money earned from June 1, 2014 to June 1, 2015 before subtracting management fees and taxes; figures are based on data from Nielsen, Box Office Mojo and IMDB, as well as interviews with agents, managers, lawyers—and stars themselves.

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News Network
June 11,2020

Washington, Jun 11: Music maestro AR Rahman has joined the international film 'No Land's Man' as co-producer and composer.

Helmed by renowned Bangladeshi filmmaker Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, the upcoming movie has Indian thespian Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Australian theatre actor Megan Mitchell, and Bangladeshi musician and actor Tahsan Rahman Khan in pivotal roles.

"Time always gives birth to new worlds, new ideals. The newborn world has new challenges and new stories to tell. This is one such story," Variety quoted Rahman as saying.

The movie chronicles the life of a South Asian, whose journey gets complicated when he meets an Australian woman in the U.S.

The film, shot in the U.S., Australia and India, is predominantly in English with some dialogue in Hindi and Urdu.

'Sacred Games' actor, Siddique said: "The filming experience for this project was challenging but a fulfilling one. AR Rahman's brilliance will definitely make the film richer."

"Farooki and I first spoke about 'No Land's Man' at Film Bazaar in 2014. Between then and now, the film has become even more relevant as it looks at what it means to be a vulnerable person in a racially-divided world," producer Srihari Sathe said.

'No Land's Man' won the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) and Asia Pacific Screen Awards' Script Development fund in 2014. It was part of the Asian Project Market at Busan and was chosen as the best project at India's Film Bazaar the same year.

Earlier in January, Siddiqui posted multiple pictures on Instagram with the team of the flick, marking the schedule wrap in New York and Sydney for 'No Land's Man.'

He also captioned the post as: "Wonderful experience with the most energetic team."

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News Network
February 12,2020

London, Feb 12: Oscar-winning British director Steve McQueen is returning to his art roots with a series of short films at London's Tate Modern art gallery, offering a sensory exploration of black identity.

McQueen, who became the first black director to win the best picture Academy Award in 2014 for "12 Years a Slave", is now based between London and Amsterdam and is focused on championing diversity in the film industry.

Visitors to his new exhibition will be greeted by "Static", a film of New York's Statue of Liberty, scrutinising the iconic symbol from every possible angle at very close range against a deafening backdrop of the helicopter from where the footage was filmed.

"What interests Steve is our view of the world, how humans are trying to represent Liberty," said Fiontan Moran, assistant curator of the exhibition.

"7th Nov, 2001" features a still shot of a body while McQueen's cousin Marcus tells of how he accidentally killed his brother, a particularly traumatic experience for the artist.

"Western Deep" is another visceral work, giving a sense through sights and sounds in an interactive installation of the experiences of miners in South Africa, following them to the bottom of the mine.

"Ashes", meanwhile, is a tribute to a young fisherman from Grenada, the island where McQueen's family originated.

The images of beauty and sweetness filmed from his boat are tragically reversed on the other side of the projection screen, which shows a grave commissioned by McQueen for the eponymous young fisherman, who was killed by drug traffickers.

African-American singer, actor and civil rights activist Paul Robeson (1898-1976) is honoured in "End Credits".

The film shows censored FBI documents detailing the agency's surveillance of Robeson, read by a voice-over artist, for five hours.

"He is... testing the limits of how people can be documented in an era of mass surveillance," said Moran.

In a similarly militant vein, the exhibition features the sculpture "Weight", which was first shown in the prison cell where the writer and playwright Oscar Wilde was imprisoned.

It depicts a golden mosquito net draped over a metal prison bed frame, addressing the theme of confinement and the power of the imagination to break free.

The show runs alongside an exhibition of McQueen's giant portraits of London school classes, many of which appeared on the streets of London last year.

"I remember my first school trip to Tate when I was an impressionable eight-year-old, which was really the moment I gained an understanding that anything is possible," said McQueen, adding it was "where in some ways my journey as an artist first began".

He recently told the Financial Times newspaper the difference between his art films and his feature films was that the former were poetry, the latter like a novel.

"Poetry is condensed, precise, fragmented," he said. "The novel is the yarn".

The exhibition opens on February 13 and runs until May 11.

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News Network
June 29,2020

New Delhi, Jun 29: Actor Bhumi Pednekar on Monday pledged to feed over 550 impoverished families as a mark of tribute to late Bollywood actor and her 'Sonchiriya' co-star Sushant Singh Rajput.

Pednekar made the announcement through an Instagram post where she shared a picture of the departed actor and penned down a note along with it.

"I pledge to feed 550 impoverished families through the Ek Saath Foundation in the memory of my dear friend. Let us show compassion and love towards everyone that is in need, now more than ever," Pednekar wrote.

The two actors shared screen space in the Abhishek Chaubey directorial which continues to be a critically acclaimed film.

Rajput was found dead at his Mumbai's Bandra residence earlier this month. The detailed post-mortem report has also confirmed that he died by "asphyxia due to hanging."

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