This topic has been doing the rounds
in industry circles for some time
now and the media has smelt it out.
So, the big question is whether there
really is a clash between the two
giants of Bollywood or whether this
is a case of a ‘mountain being
made out of a molehill.’ Whatever
be the case one cannot deny the fact
that the topic is very exciting and
debatable.
Hardcore
loyalists of both the actors may feel that there
is no room for debate and that their idol reigns
supreme. There is no intention to hurt those die
hard fans or to question the credibility of the
two legendary stars of Bollywood, or should I
say India.
So, who is bigger? Let us consider fan following
that the two command. This is a commodity that
is far too difficult to quantify. Even an online
poll might give only distorted results. So let’s
leave that and move on to the number of hits that
both the actors have delivered. But that too is
a contentious issue, after all Amitabh reigned
in a different era and SRK is the Badshah of the
more recent times. That leaves us with only their
earnings to compare. Maybe this is the only commodity
that can be quantified without leaving any room
for doubts.
As far as the acting fee goes SRK scores over
Bacchhan. While SRK charges anywhere between 5
and 7 crores for a movie while Amitabh gets around
3 crores. But then one must also consider that
the Big B no longer plays the leading role in
movies. Then come the endorsements. Here Bacchhan
scores over SRK. That is no surprise; the Big
B appears on more than 20% of the commercials
on television. But SRK surely seems to have the
bigger brands like Tag Heuer, Compaq and Videocon
behind him.
As
these figures reveal, there is not much
separating the two at the moment. But there
has been widespread talk about SRK attempting
to step into the shoes of the Big B. With
the remake of Don coming out, the talk has
become much more animated. To add to this
SRK has started endorsing the products of
Himani, an Ayurvedic company whose products
were endorsed by Amitabh in the not too
recent past. Even in the earlier phase of
his career SRK has been accused of mimicking
the styles of Big B and the legendary Dhilip
Kumar. The conversations on this issue are
set to become all the more animated with
SRK all set to take over as the host of
Kaun Banega Crorepati.
Though it has been very clearly stated by
Star India that they opted for SRK only
after the Big B declined their offer due
to health concerns, tongues have started
wagging.
Many
are seeing this as the most potent move that SRK
has made in his bid to step into the Big B’s
shoes. All this speculation is despite the fact
that the Big B and SRK have repeatedly exhibited
their friendship in public. They shared screen
space in this year’s Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna
and everything looked nice and rosy.
We all love to see some competition and this case
is no different. A contest is interesting to follow.
But we hope that it is purely professional and
that the Big B and SRK continue to entertain us
as they have been doing all these years.
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