By-Meena Iyer
1 dozen raw eggs,a pair of contact lenses,4 coffees from Barista,chicken sandwiches from candies,hot and sour maggi ketchup and dhoklas from patels supermarket.No this isnt a housewifes shopping list,its a roster of items demanded by a top actress before embarking on a photo shoot at a surburbam mumbai studio.
The sophisticated actress is in the crore plus bracket and one would imagne she could pay for her own sandwiches.However she isnt alone in this cheapness 90% of bollywood actors make the producer pay for everything from pill to pillow.The servile producer is uniformely viewed as a cow to be milked dry.
Whether its Akshay Kumar and Sanjay Dutt or Javed Jaffery all make huge demands on producers purse strings.
Not every star is cheap though.During an outdoor shoot a scribe overheard actor Monish Bahl telling the director that he would rather quit the film industry than have him pay for his wife and daughters stay in Jodhpur."Ive called them so these expenses will be borne by me".said Bahl.
Bahl ofcourse is an exception to tis rule and pehaps needs some serious rethinking.Because even veteran superstars travel with family,dogs,servants and hangers on at the expense of the producer who not only physically picks up the bags but also pays for excess baggage