Pre-Khan Era Stars Invested Only In Cinema, Did Not Dabble In Businesses To Build Fortunes

Enjoying the fruits of stardom with a string of box-office successes, the new generation of actors does not appear to be committing the mistakes of botching up their financial management the way some of their predecessors did in their heyday.

Unlike the stars of the pre-1990s era, they possess enough business acumen to understand that it is not wise to depend solely on the returns of their film career. Therefore, they are worldly wise to invest their money in different fields not only to secure their future but also to build their fortunes around it. From investments in eponymous brands of clothes, perfumes, and jewellery to restaurants, real estate and sports team franchises, they have been exploring all kinds of businesses, which are not even remotely connected to cinema. As a result, stars such as Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan are among the richest stars in the world.

The yesteryear actors, however, put most of their hard-earned money back into making films, instead of exploring new territories. They built big bungalows, and studios and developed farmhouses but beyond that, they generally refrained from investing anywhere else other than cinema. Little surprise then, some of them turned into paupers once their movies flopped miserably and had to struggle hard to make both ends meet in their twilight years. A few others came close to being bankrupt before the fortunes smiled back at them in the nick of time.

Raj Kapoor, for one, came close to being insolvent after his ambitious Mera Naam Joker became a big flop in 1970. Kapoor had taken six years after his smash hit, Sangam (1964) to make Joker and invested his last penny in it. Once the film flopped, he had to pawn his wife Krishna’s jewellery and mortgage his bungalow to repay the lenders. Thankfully, his next, a teenage romance called Bobby ended his woes by becoming one of the biggest grossers of 1973.

Kapoor did not expand his empire except by owning a farmhouse in Lonavla. A passionate filmmaker, whatever he earned, he invested back into the industry until he breathed his last in 1988, three years after making Ram Teri Ganga Maili (1985). He had, of course, built the iconic R.K.Studios in his young days, which was sold by his sons a few years ago to Godrej properties for making residential properties in Mumbai.

Kapoor was lucky enough to bounce back from the brink of bankruptcy in his life but Bharat Bhushan was not. A top hero of his time, who delivered mega-hits such as Baiju Bawra (1952) and Barsaat Ki Raat (1960), Bhushan fell on bad times after he turned producer. Though he had initial success, his subsequent films began to nosedive at the ticket counters.

He had purchased many residential properties and fancy cars in his prime. He would love to give a ride to young stars in his cars but he had to sell off everything to clear his debts.

In his later years, he was reduced to doing bit roles in films and was completely forgotten by the public that once adored him as a top-ranking hero. Similar was the fate of Pradeep Kumar. Even though Rajendra Kumar was considered to be the richest man in the industry he too lost a lot of money by producing flops films. Barring Love Story (1981) and Naam (1986), none of his films starring his son Kumar Gaurav in the lead clicked.

Jeetendra too burnt his fingers by producing Deedar-e-Yaar (1982), which made him shut down his production house. He was, however, saved by the southern film industry which offered him films like Himmatwala (1983) and Tohfa (1984). In recent years, Jackie Shroff also faced a financial crisis after Boom (2003), a big-budget film produced by his wife, Ayesha Shroff, tanked.

But it was Amitabh Bachchan who faced the worst. He somehow extricated himself from an ugly situation after his company ABCL incurred huge losses by producing flop movies and organising the Miss World pageant in India. He left the industry after Khuda Gawah (1992) for the US. When he decided to return and resumed his career, his films such as Mrityudaata (1996) began to bomb. Towards the end of the last century, he had no films in hand.

Thankfully, a TV gameshow, Kaun Banega Crorepati (2000) brought him back into the reckoning. Today, he is among the top ten richest actors in the world. The Bachchan family, however, had the major control in a pharmaceutical firm, IPCA Laboratories in the seventies but it sold off its stakes in later years. Business was apparently neither his cup of tea nor any of his contemporaries or predecessors.