Are BW relationships FINANCIAL DEALS?

Bollywood's cheque mates

Unlike a decade ago, when being in love, and worse, declaring it, meant professional hara-kiri, today, India's most famous are worth more in a pair. Nona Walia on the celeb couple economy

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

ACTOR Saif Ali Khan, presumably nervous and equally hopeful about his just-released home production Agent Vinod, is unlikely to take it well when he hears Shailendra Singh of Percept Limited say, "Is the world waiting to see Saif and Kareena's on-screen chemistry? I doubt it." But Khan should perhaps wait for the joint managing director of the entertainment and media conglomerate to chase it with, "When they do movies together, there's little excitement because the world knows they are a couple. But when they sign on endorsements, they are a power couple. They exude dynamism in public life."
The fate of Khan and his lover Kareena Kapoor's previous films, Tashan and Kurbaan, prove Singh right. Although far from consistent box-office draws when they share film credits, they continue to be worth crores. The reason ' their relationship. Komal Nahta, editor of film trade journal Film Information, estimates that 'Saifeena' would command close to 80 crore annually for endorsements and appearances.
Celebrity pairing could be the ultimate collaboration of the famous; one where 1+1 equals millions. Social historian Dr Mary Abbott discusses the phenomenon in her book Power Couples that starts with Mark Antony and Cleopatra and folds up with Posh Spice and David Beckham. "What would these men and women have achieved without their other halves? What powered the relationships that made them household names? Love? Sex? Obsessive passion? Shared ambition? A hardnosed calculation of the benefits of collaboration?" she asks.
The last one holds more potency than we imagine, believes clinical psychologist Jim Houran. "Powerful people tend to gravitate toward other powerful people," says Houran, who studies the phenomenon of celebrity worship. A decade ago, married stars were outdated and unsaleable. What's turned them into hot commodities is the transparency with which they approach their relationships.
"They are smart enough to calculate the benefits of togetherness. I'd imagine that Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai are worth 120 crore annually. A long-married Ajay Devgn and Kajol have worked up sales of an FMCG brand. They are happy to encash their 'family' image," says Nahta. Far from damaging prospects, news of Khan and Kapoor's anticipated and frequently postponed wedding, including speculations about Rajasthan as a possible venue, is working towards keeping them in power.
Devgn and his wife of 12 years have endorsed home appliances brand Whirpool and telecom service provider Tata Indicom. 'Saifeena' is currently the face of Head & Shoulders shampoo. The brand had snagged Kapoor as brand ambassador in 2007, around the same time the couple admitting to dating each other. In 2008, Khan joined the team. The two are said to charge close to 6.5 crore as endorsement fee.
That's a crore less than what Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan reportedly charged for the 2009 Lux advertisement. It came close on the heels of Guru (2007) and Sarkar (2008), their last two films together. Experts say while 'Saifeena' is seen as flamboyant, marriage has lent credibility to Aish and Abhi. "They are India's strongest power couple. We signed (Abhishek Bachchan) on five years ago. He was younger then and not a superstar like Aamir Khan. But there was something cool about him. Co-incidently, the endorsement and wedding unfolded in the same year, and it changed his luck and finances," says Ashwin Jacob Varkey, creative director, Lowe, who worked with Bachchan on the Idea Cellular campaign.
According to a report published in journal Labour Economics, high-achieving men are choosing high-achieving women. When Riteish Deshmukh identified himself and new bride, actress Genelia D'Souza, as Mr and Mrs Deshmukh in a tweet, what he was doing was endorsing his new-relationship status. The two were recently seen in Tere Naal Love Ho Gaya which the makers had hoped would benefit from their coupledom. Will the chemistry be profitable? "The flavour-of-the-month, Genelia-Riteish stand at the lower end of the celebrity food chain. But we are starved of celebrity couples and they might just land that odd couple endorsement. India has changed dramatically in the last 20 years. Bodies aren't the only things flaunted these days; emotions and relationships displayed, too," says film journalist Avijit Ghosh.
Advertising guru Prathap Suthan says being a power couple in Bollywood is a challenge. "Celebrity advertising is dependent on the ups and downs of the relationship. If a problem crops up between the couple, the brand is left red-faced."
Singh shares the example of long-time lovers John Abraham and Bipasha Basu. "After their break-up, their brand was diluted. When there's a split, one person ends up as loser."
That lifestyle and film magazines are hungry for scoops, makes spicy private lives a draw, says columnist Anil Dharker. There's proof of that in Hollywood too. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have appeared, alone and together, on the cover of People magazine 22 times; before they were a couple, Pitt appeared eight times, and Jolie just once, says a report. New York magazine estimates their combined portfolio is worth $270 million.
The couples don't have it easy. They have to keep working at it if they want the money to stream in. The risk of the market being plagued by boredom rests close, says image consultant Dilip Cherian. The editor of a film magazine who didn't wish to be named, speaks of Basu and Abraham refraining from announcing their split, because they were tied up in couple endorsements. "They were bound by contract, so they had to keep up the mirage of a relationship."
Bagging plush endorsements also means you can choose to do that select one film a year ' even if belonging to the niche, indie genre ' because your bills are being taken care of courtesy the brands. Jolie, who is believed to have acted in two films a year, didn't sign on any last year, except a small foreign language production based on the Bosnian war.
Cherian puts the mathematics into sweet perspective when he says, "It's economics, really. Between them one is invariably more successful than the other, who benefits from the 'rub-off ' effect. But of course, both emerge winners."
nona.walia@timesgroup.com