Ash most bankable Indian in Hollywood: Forbes

Slumdog Millionaire may be the toast of the season with its bouquet of Oscar nominations, but Aishwarya Rai has emerged as the most bankable star from India in Hollywood and has been ranked even more valuable than the Khans of Bollywood in a new Forbes list.

Rai is among half a dozen Bollywood actors on the list of "Hollywood's Most Valuable Actors", compiled by the American publication known for its rankings of the world's richest persons.

Other Indians on the list include Aamir Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan, Irfan Khan and Hrithik Roshan.

Although at 387th position in the global list of as many as 1,411 actors from across the world, Rai is ranked the highest among all the Indian actors and is the only female actor from the country to have made it to this elite club.

Besides six actors from India, the list also includes one American actor Kal Penn, who is of Indian origin and has starred in movies like The Namesake. At 476th position, Penn is ranked higher than all the Bollywood actors, except Aishwarya Rai, who stars in the new Hollywood venture, The Pink Panther 2.

Among male Bollywood actors, Aamir is ranked highest at 540th in the global list, followed by Shahrukh (735th), Salman (753rd), Irfan Khan (825th) and Hrithik Roshan (1059th).

The global list, topped by Hollywood actor Will Smith, is based on the bankability of actors around the world, as voted by members of the global entertainment industry, Forbes said.

The rankings are based on scores given to more than 1,400 working actors globally by the industry people on a scale of zero-to-ten, in terms of their bankability to ensure the financial success of film projects.

Smith is the only actor to get a ten-on-ten score and is followed by as many as four Hollywood stars -- Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio and Angelina Jolie -- at the second position.

They are followed by Tom Hanks, George Clooney, Denzel Washington, Matt Damon and Jack Nicholson in the top ten.

As per the ranking criteria, Smith is the only actor to get an "ultimate" score from across the world, while all the Indians on the list would be ranked below-average.

An 'ultimate' ranking means a score value of 10.0, while those scoring 7.50 or more are classified as 'strong'. Besides, a score of 5.00 is termed as 'average', a score value of 2.50 is 'low' and the actors scoring zero are deemed to be having no influence at all.

The Indian actors have scored between 2.30 and 4.44, which classify Aishwarya Rai at 4.44, Kal Penn (3.94), Aamir (3.68), Shahrukh (3.00), Salman (2.96) and Irfan Khan (2.84) between low-to-average, while Hrithik Roshan is classified as below the 'low' level with a score of 2.30.

The inaugural issue of 'Forbes Star Currency' survey, on which the list is based, was conducted between September 3 through November 16, 2008. Erdos & Morgan, a New York-based independent research firm that advised Forbes on the survey
and also handled the tabulation and ranking of the results.

Forbes said that "many elements contribute to the financing of a film as well as its ultimate theatrical box-office performance and post-theatrical life-- the actor's involvement being one of the central components."