For the first time ever, three Bollywood stars Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan, and Akshay Kumar managed to score slots in the top 10 on Forbes' annual " World's Highest-Paid Actors " list.
Both Bachchan and Khan each made $33.5 million to tie in seventh place. The means each actors made as much as Hollywoo stars Seth Rogan and George Clooney combined. Kumar, on the other hand, ranked ninth on the list at $32.5 million, making more than Mark Whalberg, Will Smith, and Dwayne Johnson.
Big B's extensive 50-year career and his hosting gig of India's version of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" (which racked an average 5.2 million in weekly viewership in 2014) has made him a household name in his native country, adding to his long list of starring roles in over 150 films. India's biggest star, and Bollywood's bad boy, Salman Khan, tied with Bachchan on the list. Khan's career has been marred in controversy but has only served to bolster his popularity in India. He was sentenced to five years in prison in May 2015 for a 2002 hit-and-run that killed car accident which killed a homeless man.
Kumar, who ranked ninth, is one of Bollywood's busiest leading men, filming an average of 4 movies a year since his breakthrough role in "Khiladi" in 1992. He also hosts the Indian reality TV show "Dare 2 Dance."
Further down the list, at no. 18 and no. 30 are Shah Rukh Khan ($26 million) and Ranbir Kapoor ($15 million) respectively.
Robert Downey Jr. topped the list for the third year in a row with an annual haul of $80 million.