New Delhi, June 12: Bollywood’s daredevil, Akshay Kumar, is all set to host the Indian version of ‘Fear Factor’. The actor, while shooting for one of the episodes for the show recently, jumped off the tallest building in Thailand. He will be shooting for more episodes as his stay there is up to the last week of June.

Akki’s show would give a tough time to the contestants’ mental and physical strength. The actor-host would have 13 beautiful ladies around playing danger. “The stunts will include snakes and scorpions, so it is sure going to be horrifying for the ladies”, a source told reporters.

The 13 divas on the hit list include Pooja Bedi, Anjana Sukhani, Meghna Naidu, Aditi Govitrikar, Tapur Chatterjee, and Sonali Kulkarni. The show, which is to go on air in August, will mark Akki’s debut on small screen. With no less than 13 Indian beauties around the sexiest 'khiladi' in Bollywood, the show would be a big lure for the youth.

It was in his days as a youngster that Priyadarshan used to play cricket in the fields of Kerala. Cricket was his passion then but Priyan, as he’s fondly called, is glad that he became a filmmaker instead.

“I would not have been a good cricketer,” he recalls with a smile, “I was never one of the best players. But this is much better. When I shoot for commercials with cricketers now, they tell me that I’m so lucky not to have so many restrictions on me as they do. I guess it’s better to be a filmmaker than the number one cricket player in India!” he laughs. Priyan’s been watching the IPL matches as well. He adds, “I went with Shah Rukh Khan to watch it. I don’t know why some people think that cricket has lost its charm because of IPL. That’s like saying the songs of the 70s were better than today. I agree, but then youngsters don’t want to listen to them. That’s the reason remixes are happening. So in the same way, IPL is the remix of one-day or test cricket!”

But it’s not just watching IPL matches that Priyadarshan’s been upto. He’s here with his latest offering, Mere Baap Pehle Aap starring Akshaye Khanna, Paresh Rawal and Genelia D’Souza.

“It’s a comedy film about relationships,” is how Priyan puts it, “I expect every father and son to watch this film together.” He’s dedicated this film to his cinema gurus like Basu Chatterjee and Hrishikesh Mukherjee. “It’s that kind of a film, it’s not like my Bhagam Bhaag or Hera Pheri. This is a sweet film about relationships,” he says. And for him, an appreciative word about his films from such veterans counts much more than any award. “Hrishida is my guru. He wanted to watch my film Malamaal Weekly but he could not come to the theatre, so I sent him a DVD. After watching the film, he said to me ‘You make me feel that I can still make these kind of films even today’. It’s not the awards you win, the ultimate thing is to receive a compliment from people you adore and respect,” adds Priyan. The film is about a son trying to get his widowed father remarried, so is there a hidden social message there too? “I don’t believe in sending messages through my films, I’d rather just send an SMS!” he guffaws.

The director has become synonymous with comedy films. Why this obsession with comedy? “I love comedy!” declares Priyan, “When my first child was born, I just prayed to God to give him two things — common sense and a sense of humour! I love reading comics and watching cartoons. I find humour in every moment in real life. Maybe that’s why I succeed at comedies.” But he is aware that making comedy films is risky business. “That’s because the results are immediate. If nobody’s laughing in the theatre, then you immediately get to know it’s a flop. That’s why I never depend on dialogue-based comedies but situational comedies,” he says.

Another accusation against the director is that all his Hindi films are remakes of hit regional films. How true is that? “Yes, most of them are remakes,” he admits. “One of the greatest directors Martin Scorsese made a number of great films and never got an Oscar. Then he made a remake of a Hong Kong film called The Departed and got an Oscar! So is remake better or original?” he asks with a grin. But on a serious note, Priyan says Billo Barber that stars SRK will be his last remake. “The next one with Akshay Kumar is an original script. Earlier I couldn’t find writers but now I am, so next year I won’t make remakes. Then people will ask me why I’m not making remakes!” he smiles. That’s classic Priyadarshan for you!

Only a fool and his money, they say, are easily parted. Bollywood currently has its share of loaded film corporations, the top five of which have a staggering Rs 1,000-crore corpus each, only for film production. But they're still not throwing it away as the world has been led to believe.

Let's get it straight. Reliable trade sources in Bollywood say that only two actors to date—Aamir Khan (Ghajini) and Akshay Kumar (Venus' untitled project directed by Priyadarshan)—have been promised Rs 20 crore as remuneration, i.e. their cheques will have eight zeroes. Additionally, Aamir will probably get to keep a distribution territory, and Akshay a share in the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) from Venus, which ups the fee by another 10 to 12 crores.

That's where the secret of stars' bloated remunerations lies, IPR being the latest attack by film stars on a producer's profits. When one totals the revenue-sharing from distribution rights or IPR, the top five actors of today—Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir, Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar and Hrithik Roshan—do end up taking home hefty amounts.

That said, figures like Rs 50 crore are still vastly exaggerated. "Anyone who tells you that he's getting Rs 50 crore (like it was reported Salman Khan was for a T-Series project) or any such ridiculous amount is bullshitting," says a corporate honcho. Adds Pritish Nandy, who heads PNC, "Only people who do not understand money can talk like this. It's all garbage. Mumbai's real estate and movie business figures that constantly grab headlines are both way off the mark."

A trade analyst calculates: If Salman Khan or Akshay Kumar were to get Rs 50 crore as remuneration (like the media constantly leads us to believe), then the project would cost its producer something to the tune of Rs 90-100 crore. And despite recovery from all the 14 Bollywood film terr@itories within India and overseas (in close to 52 countries across the globe), such a project would still not be viable.

"The only way Rs 100 crore can be recovered from a Bollywood project in its initial run is by giving it a Hollywood kind of release, which is putting a film in 2,000 theatres across the globe, and then waiting for revenue to trickle in from other sources like satellite, home video and other licensing avenues," says a marketing person.

An interesting point to note here is: several film corporations who have paid ridiculous remunerations to actors/directors have not actually recovered their money. "But they are wearing their best face, so that their investors don't panic... and also because they're treating it like a branding exercise," says a trade pundit.

So where do all the exaggerated star salary figures come in from? "Well, they are conveniently leaked to a gullible media waiting to create a headline every hour, every day," says producer Mukesh Bhatt, who has never paid his actors more than what he thinks is their due. The reason that actors and film-makers leak the figures of their grossly exaggerated remunerations, adds a marketing guru, is because they are actually in talks with several film corporations at the same time. "By giving out improbable figures, they just hope that the next guy who approaches them will up the ante," he chuckles.

The latest deal everyone is gagging over is the sale of the Rakesh Roshan-Anurag Basu flick Kites. "On the morning the deal was being signed, it was said that Roshan and Basu would get Rs 122 crore for a five-year period for all rights," says a producer. "Within an hour, the next report that came said that Kites was being sold for Rs 130 crore. Sure, Bollywood is made of megabucks today, but even Wall Street and the Bombay Stock Exchange don't see such ridiculous jumps in a matter of hours." Adds Nandy, "The number game has been a favourite Bollywood pastime for the last year and a half. Surprisingly, no one is calling their bluff.

A trade source suggests a way to do this: apply under the Right to Information Act to the Film Circle ward that processes the income-tax returns of actors, check how much they have paid in taxes for the last couple of years and you will have your answer. Like, it is rumoured that a leading action hero who boasted that he had earned Rs 13 crore from a particular project paid just Rs 7 crore as tax that year. "It doesn't add up, does it?" asks Nandy.

Sandeep Bhargava of Indian Films (one of the big players currently) is also not amused by the star/director prices that are being screamed from the rooftops. "It is actually a myth that film corporates are paying illogical sums of money to stars and film-makers," he says. "A lot of times I see reports in the media about how much our company is paying to whom. In almost all the cases, these are either false reports or hugely inflated figures. One has to realise that anyone conducting business, whether it's a corporate or otherwise, is not beyond the logic of viability. We cannot pay anything which is beyond the scope of recovery. There is an increase in the scale of business, and that will reflect in the fees of people, but the figures floating around are irrational. We actually are conservative with monies and it's amazing how often we are reportedly giving big sums to stars and film-makers."

To end with what it really costs to make a film: Marathi cinema, which is currently seeing a resurgence, comes with a price tag of Rs 40-45 lakh at most. "And even Bengal's best films continue to be made for a similar budget," points out Nandy.

That, perhaps, is the cost of the hero's costumes in big-buck, low-quality Bollywood.