Finally Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio gets the Oscar, and the dawn to dusk celebrations must be on at his mansion with models 1/3 his age (that’s the joke, he likes his girls to be hot, young, and prettily endowed). Is it well deserved? Certainly the party is, but the androgynous golden statuette? I really don’t know as I did not watch ‘The Revenant’. But after asking nearly a dozen persons who watched it, I still don’t want to. The reason being that a couple of them remarked that it was s-o-o-o-o boring that it nearly cured them of their insomnia. A couple of others said that it takes extremely long for the scenes to peak, and since there is very little dialogue you tend to drift more into the wilderness than the moral disruption of the main characters on screen. The critics may have gone ga-ga and their reviews rated 4-5 stars, but did the general everyday movie going public buy into it? The answer is probably “No, not really!”

Anyway, the question is did DiCaprio really deserve it? And that too after being in the movies for over 2 decades? Remember he started off as a child artiste, and what a talented one at that! Sure, ‘Titanic’ made him a star, and he was canny enough to capitalize on that by signing on mega-million dollar roles that would certainly fetch him the money, and demonstrate his box-office clout. Leo has definitely earned his stripes—he was a terrific villain in ‘Django Unchained’, was the only reason to watch ‘The Great Gatsby’ and in his initial years was the best thing to happen to ‘What’s eating Gilbert Grape’, as a dysfunctional teen in ‘Marvin’s Room’, a young homosexual in ‘Total Eclipse’ and as the charming thief in Steven Spielberg’s ‘Catch me if you can’. But long story short, Leo makes his money irrespective of an Oscar because of his savvy investing in the right projects, his way of getting payback after a film is made based on global ticket sales and in organizations that can reap in profits. Behind his 41-year old golden-boy look is a shrewd mind, a clock-work business ticking sense, as he knows that his tenure at the movies might not be lifelong.

So who are the highest paid entertainers / actors in the world you might ask? Thanks to a recent online report by one of the most dependable business magazines in the world, here are the ones who made it to the top—thanks to their million-dollar remunerations—not only in the movies that they star in but also for commercial endorsements, public appearances, and weddings (Everyone knows that Shahrukh Khan for instance charges top $$$$$$ for dancing at weddings, or for even making a 5 minute appearances. Actually hats off to him for charging his weight in gold!).

In Hollywood Iron-Man Robert Downey Junior makes it to the top of Entertainment Everest with a whopping $80 million per year. For a former alcoholic and drug addict to have made such a dramatic turnaround is laudable. Robert Downey Jr. is worth it for most men because he is a role model who embraced a life of detoxification, and moderation.

He is closely followed by Jackie Chan ($50 million) who looks like a Desi version of Sunny Deol, and is probably the same age. Jackie is smart—his money-making goals (like Leo) are not restricted to his signing amounts in films but he has his hands into many businesses including toys that look like him, endorsements for cars, and lucrative celebrity endorsement assignments. Who’s next? Vin Diesel with $47 million. He makes it to the spot because of ‘The Fast & Furious’ franchise, and has a loyal following across the world—from India to Japan to the Middle East.

In the 7^th spot is our very own Amitabh Bachchan. At a sprightly 80 (he says he is in his70’s but reports state otherwise) he has held his ground by re-inventing himself. Switching to TV with the South Asian version of ‘Who wants to be a millionaire’ called ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ as its chief host he locked himself into the hearts and minds of the masses across India, and the world. Notwithstanding the films he signed on, his true earnings in big pay checks came from endorsing products—from pens, to hardboiled candy, to watches to jewellery—there was a time when the joke was “All the ads that you watch in your commercial break are Bachchan’s”.

Jokes aside, our Bollywood stars have overtaken Hollywood stars (in terms of earnings). Picture this: racing ahead of Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are Salman Khan (estimated 33.5 million), Akshay Kumar (32.5 million), and Shahrukh Khan (26 million). Ranbir Kapoor also makes the grade at 30^th place with $15 million.

Jude Paul Fernandes is the author of ‘Frost Bites’ and the upcoming ‘Lonely in Mumbai’