It’s safe to say that 2017 has been an underwhelming year for Bollywood. It will possibly be remembered as the year of bans, threats and grave financial ruin. With the exception of the tornado that was Baahubali: The Conclusion and a few others, there was hardly any cheer on Fridays. According to trade website boxofficeindia.com, the footfalls for Hindi cinema has dropped from 34 crore in 2013 to 27.25 crore this year. This includes a 2.5 crore estimate for Tiger Zinda Hai and 5 crore for Baahubali – take the latter away and it stands at a worrying Rs 22.25 crore. While those in power are mulling ways to rein in losses, there’s one giant expense that people shy away from addressing – the celebrity entourage.

For the uninitiated, the posse of helpers you see fussing over a star at all times is what makes a celebrity entourage. They’re like the background dancers to the main star. Or as one movie producer describes them – ‘the guys who keep them delusional’. The bigger the star, the more bloated the entourage. Priyanka Chopra said there are 25 people ‘who run her’. And as the star gets richer, so does the entourage. In fact, there’s a running joke that soon they’ll be worth more than the actor. Rumour has it that Jacqueline Fernandez’s hairstylist may have earned more than her on the 2014 film Kick.





“They’re running a full scam,” rues a senior film producer who didn’t want to be named. “I often wonder if I should quit my job and become a hairdresser or driver to an actor. They take home more than what corporate executives in companies get. And that too for doing little or no work,” he adds. If you examine a movie budget, the overhead on entourage costs is becoming obscenely heavy. For a couple of hours in a day, an actor’s team slaps a bill of anything upwards of Rs 1 lakh. Remember, this is just for a day. A film shoot typically goes on for 2 months, sometimes more. And then there are 3 weeks of promotions before the release. So you do the math. ALSO READ: FAN: HOW SOCIAL MEDIA CHANGED PASSION TO POWER A Growing Family Back in the day, a movie star travelled light. Every actress had a long-time hair and make-up assistant and their moms for company. Today there’s a make-up and hair person, manager, stylist, spot boy, bodyguard and driver. More recently, gym trainers and nutritionists have also joined the gang. They are all critical to serving an actor’s brand and therefore, none of them come cheap. “A stylist today bills me Rs 45,000 per look during promotions. So if an actor has changed his T-shirt thrice in a day, I have to pay over a lakh. Can you imagine how much we’re paying for someone who isn’t even directly contributing to the film,” says a perplexed marketing head of a production house, on condition of anonymity.

Tales of celebrity entourages and their excesses range from bizarre to amusing. Recently a top male actor’s driver demanded Rs 10,000 to take him from his home in Juhu to a hotel a few buildings down the road. Another’s spot boy wanted Rs 10,000 to accompany the actor on a 2-hour shoot where his presence wasn’t even required. Managers now expect to be flown only business class. And for some inexplicable reason, when actors make a TV appearance on a reality show to promote their film, the entourage jacks up their costs by double. The entourage universe has also developed its own little star system. So the hairstylist of an A-list actress will get paid a lot more than one of a newer actress. But when the newer actress scores a few hit films, greater clout at the box office, and therefore a bigger paycheck, her hairstylist miraculously gets a raise too. It’s privilege by association. Talent agency Kwan Entertainment and Marketing Solutions, which manages actors like Deepika Padukone and Ranbir Kapoor, refused to comment on the matter.

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“The cost of the personal staff varies depending on how critical or important an actor is to the industry. In my opinion, the personal staff behaves more important than the actor,” says Kulmeet Makkar, the CEO of the Film & Television Producers Guild of India. “We have told the actors in the past that we can’t negotiate with them directly because they will ask for unreasonable prices. So now the execution needs to be done by the actors. They need to lead by example,” he adds.