The most profitable actors in Bollywood

Ajay Devgn seems to be the most profitable actor in Bollywood and actor Katrina Kaif is the safest bet if you want to make a film.

The facts have come to light in a recent analysis, done by the team at ETC Bollywood Business Awards after carefully tabulating the amount of money invested in an actor and how much an actor has given in terms of box office returns. This is for the first time that actors have been evaluated on the terms of their box office performance rather than their acting.

"Bollywood is an industry, where movies gets released every Friday, and the cine-goers pass verdict whether they buy it or not. And as is common to any other industry, Bollywood should also be judged accordingly. Presently, in India, all those who represent the industry, actors, musicians, directors, et al, have only been judged on creative parameters. No one had thought of evaluating them on how much business they had generated!

"Having identified this opportunity in the evaluation system, we decided to explore it," says Anurag Bedi, business head of the channel.

Interestingly Akshay Kumar has snaked past Ranbir Kapoor into the top four because he had more releases than him and hence the cumulative returns that he has given back are more than Ranbir.

In the women's section, it's a head-on battle with Aishwarya Rai Bachchan getting past Sonam Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra to enter the top four bracket. In the most profitable director section, Abhinav Kashyap has surpassed all other directors just because of one film ' yes! Call it the Dabangg effect!

Most profitable actors and their box office returns in 2010:
1. Ajay Devgn
(Rs282 crore, 5 releases: Athiti Tun Kab Jaoge, Rajneeti, Once Upon A Time In Mumbai, Aakrosh, Golmaal 3)
2. Akshay Kumar
(Rs183 crore, 4 releases: Housefull, Khatta Meetha, Action Replayy, Tees Maar Khan)
3. Salman Khan
(Rs180 crore, 2 releases: Veer, Dabangg)
4. Shah Rukh Khan
(Rs70 crore, 1 release: My Name Is Khan)

Most profitable actresses in 2010:
1. Katrina Kaif
(Rs142 crore, 2 releases: Rajneeti and Tees Maar Khan)
2.Kareena Kapoor
(Rs138 crore, 3 releases: Milenge Milenge, We are Family, Golmaal 3)
3.Deepika Padukone
(Rs131 crore, 4 releases: Karthik Calling Karthik, Housefull, Lafangey Parindey, Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Se)
4. Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan:
(Rs84 crore, 3 releases: Robot, Action Replayy, Guzaarish)

Most profitable directors in 2010:
1. Abhinav Kashyap
(Rs140 crore with only Dabangg)
2. Rohit Shetty (Rs107 crore with only Golmaal 3)
3. Prakash Jha (Rs93 crore with Raajneeti, Aakrosh)
4. Karan Johar (Rs74 crore with only My Name is Khan)

Source: ETC Bollywood Business Awards