The economics of gyration in the country

Yana Gupta, Malaika Arora, IshaKoppikar, Sophia Haque, DJ Doll, Meghna Naidu — they are the new breed ofstars. They are called ''item queens''. You pick any one of thesebeautiful girls and ask them why they do dance numbers (we are feeling''somewhat'' to call them ''item numbers''...sorry about that) they will give youone answer: "We love dancing, so we do it." I am sure they love dancing. Andhow! Nevertheless, they also are paid handsomely for doing what they say theylove doing. An industry source reveals, "Raveena Tandon and ShilpaShetty command a cool Rs 15-20 lakh for an item number. (And a dance numbertakes around three to four days to film). Whereas, Yana Gupta gets around Rsfive to ten lakh. (Hey, but she has just done one number! That''s not fair to ourMamtas and Shweta Menons who have been around for donkeys years! Is this what iscalled the principle of partial-gyration?) Incidentally, Yana alsocharges around Rs four to five lakh for performing heron stage. DJ doll chargesRs one lakh twenty thousand to gyrate to herminus the diamond studdedG-string, on stage. (And I am tickled to think that she has not even sung thatsong!) Meghna Naidu of the fame charges Rs one lakh per day, for a show.""Meghna Naidu was paid just Rs two and a half lakh as a heroine fora Kannada film for which she had to slog for 45 days. Whereas now she''s paidumpteen times more as an item queen," says filmmaker Indrajeet Lankesh, who paidAditi Govatrikar Rs two and a half lakh for a dance number in his movie LankeshPatrike. "The song was filmed in three days." "As a heroine, most ofthese actresses (upcoming ones) will get paid around Rs two to four lakh perfilm and they will have to work for 50-60 days," says Indrajeet. "Whereas, theyearn the same amount or if not more, for an item number which will take aroundthree to four days to shoot." Could this be the reason why our dance-queens areshunning heroine roles and would rather gyrate for three minutes on screen?"C''mon, look at Yana Gupta, she can never become a heroine in Hindior any language film," says Lankesh. "She cannot compete with a Kareena or aKarisma Kapoor. Some of these girls will be flop heroines. Then they will bedelegated to doing horrible roles. Whereas now as ''item queens'' there is a lotmore recognition, they are presented beautifully by the directors (Yeah, yeah.Ramgopal Varma is a pioneer in that area) and above all they get good money in ashort span of time." Moreover, these dance numbers have even revivedthe careers of few heroines. "Isha Koppikar did not do well as a heroine downsouth," says director Praveen Naik. Isha was the heroine of his Kannada film. "But,look at what one item number has done to her career. She became famousovernight. Now, she is busier, popular and richer than everbefore."If you guys are wondering what happened to that sizzlingstarlet Mamta Kulkarni here''s a bit of information — she also does dancenumbers, albeit off screen. " She travels all over north India doing stageshows. She charges around Rs five lakh per show for one or two dance numbers anddoes more than two shows per day," revealed a source who has seen Mamta reachedthe peak of controversy during her stint in Bollywood. "She alsocharges around Rs two lakh for cutting ribbons." Huh? "Yeah, opening of shopsand boutiques!" I don''t mind cutting ribbons. I love cutting ribbons. I can evencut them artistically. But who cares about my talents. As they say, you shouldbe at the right place at the right time and you should be smart. Just like ouritem queens. Long live the queens!