Fat paychecks, Big-B row spiced up I-T calendar

MUMBAI: Bollywood biggies had to shell out huge income tax paychecks last year.

The big paycheck list includes Preity Zinta (Rs 7.32 crore), singer Jagjit Singh (Rs 8.07 crore), Kareena Kapoor (Rs 7.55 crore), Akshay Kumar (Rs 7.23 crore), Ajay Devgun (Rs 6.31 crore), Vidhu Vinod Chopra (Rs 6.28 crore), Salman Khan (Rs 5 crore), Sanjay Dutt (Rs 5.23 crore) and Paresh Rawal with Rs 4.16 crore.

There was some drama away from the silver screen. A boring tax collection calendar was spiced up with the controversy surrounding the notice I-T department sent to Bachchan as he was recuperating in hospital. The notice took on a poltical hue after the superstar talked about it in an interview with TOI.

The department later clarified the notices had been sent to him before he was admitted to hospital and had no ulterior or poltical motive. Even as salaries of actors in Bollywood touched the sky, the icing on the cake has been unending offers for product endorsements, right from cars to diamonds, underwear to winter wear.

So, even as Bachchan charged Rs 2.5 crore per film project riding a success wave with Black, Waqt, Sarkar and Bunty Aur Babli he endorsed Emami products, getting Rs 1 crore for each day of shooting.