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Wonderful entertainer. Lousy businessman

I am a diehard fan of Amitabh Bachchan. Like millions I have been deeply affected by him -- give two or three, I have seen almost all of his films not once, but many times over.

I have walked out of cinema halls, quietly clenching my teeth, staring coldly at people like he has often done on screen.

At parties I have held many a time a glass of liquor and twirled it unconsciously like he does.

I adored how he kept his anger bottled up, and got back at his opponents with lines that were laced with sarcasm and cut deeper than a knife.

In school and college Vijay -- his favourite screen name in Deewar, Trishul, Don, Agneepath, or the shortened Jai in Sholay -- was my role model rather than any other living Indian personality.

I have followed Amitabh's life ardently. I was particularly impressed by how in real life too, like Vijay, he was building his life all over again. Consider his near death accident during the shooting of Coolie, his brush with the Bofors controversy, his unsuccessful dabble in politics, a deluge of eminently forgettable films, and the colossal ABCL disaster. Mired in controversy, swathed in debt, and hounded by failure, I thought it was a sad way for my favourite film star to go.

But then he took up the television show, Kaun Banega Crorepati, entered the living rooms of millions of Indians and touched their hearts again.

Today, Amitabh Bachchan is the toast of India again. His films are clicking (Mohabbatein), he is endorsing brands (a five crore deal with ICICI, another five crore with Parker pens), and he is now talking about building ABCL all over again.

Which is where the fan in me steps back, looks at him coldly, and wonders why he is making a blunder again. Amitabh Bachchan is a wonderful entertainer, but a lousy businessman. In entertainment and sport if you earn lots of money it doesn't necessarily mean you are a good businessman. It only means you are a good performer.

Amitabh symbolises everything that successful film stars, sportpersons and celebrities in India have so often foolishly tried to do. They believe if they excel on the field or on celluloid they can excel in business too.

There is, of course, nothing wrong in believing that. But you are asking for trouble when you don't give up and continue to hear the wondrous applause of the cinema halls or stadia when you walk into a boardroom. Just like you need talent to excel on stage or in a stadium, you need a talent for business too.

Is your earnings more than your expenses?

Let me explain why Amitabh is a flop businessman. In business you need first and foremost to live by one basic principle: How much you earn and how much you spend. When he launched the Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Limited and branded himself as an entity (is Shah Rukh Khan listening?), his financial advisors (and this included well respected firms like Kotak Mahindra) calculated that his brand name was worth around Rs 60-odd crore (Rs 600 million); that he would earn x amount of money from his forthcoming films; that the company's other productions would earn y amount, and so on.

Reminds you very much of what dotcoms recently did, doesn't it? One fine day we will earn, but until then let us spend on marketing, promotions and brand building.

Revenue projections, as Amitabh may have later realised, are just projections. They cannot drive your expenditure. You cannot make the mistake of thinking you will one day be a hundred crore company and start paying salaries that run into crores now! You cannot bid outrageously for events such as Miss World, and then fail miserably to meet your targets on sponsorship, ticketing sales, and telecast fees.

Successful businessmen run their own company.

Amitabh later did confess that he had learnt his lessons the hard way. He thought by hiring top notch professionals such as Sanjeev Gupta from Hindustan Lever his business was in safe hands. It wasn't. Gupta was good at selling soaps but not of the television kind. If it was anybody who knew best about the entertainment industry in the company it was Amitabh. But, alas, he was not running it. He was only a mascot.

Walt Disney ran his company. Not Mickey Mouse.

The counter argument was how could Amitabh run the company when he was busy making money for ABCL? Most successful personalities feel the same way -- they are the star performers, not the star managers. Well, go ahead, be busy. And while you are at it you may as well forget the company. If you can't manage your company, why have a company? Why don't you be just a passive shareholder in some other company?

Chose your business partner more carefully than your spouse.

Most entrepreneurs think our private and business lives should be kept separately. Much as they want to, they can't. Many times we think our friends could make good business partners. But they don't. Many times we think our business partners could also make good friends. Sometimes they do.

Call it vulnerability or foolhardiness, some of Amitabh's public friends have landed him in troubled waters. There was Rajiv Gandhi once. And now, Ketan Parekh…

Ketan Parekh is already neck deep in trouble. And as the noose around him gets tighter comes the news that he has also invested in or lent money to ABCL. If that wasn't enough to give a pale shade to the colour of money that ABCL has received, Zee Telefilms's promoters, much to the surprise and denial of ABCL, announced it has picked up equity in ABCL! (so what if they failed to come up with a winner against KBC; Zee bought a sizeable stake in Bachchan's company!!)

So we have a piquant situation here. Zee's promoters lent money to KP. KP parked it in ABCL. ABCL thought KP had invested in it. Zee thinks it has bought an equity in ABCL. And SEBI thinks that Zee and KP are hand in glove to hike Zee's share prices.

While Zee, KP and SEBI battle it out, who takes a blow again on his solar plexus? Our favourite superstar, of course! By doing business with a tainted friend Amitabh is back to square one -- fighting off the ignominy of a corrupt world.

What riles me -- pardon this emotional fan -- is why in the name of heaven does Amitabh Bachchan want to pursue a business career? He has got name, fame, and money like very few Indians have. His personal life is blooming -- he has two wonderful grandchildren. His wife -- of whom I am another big fan -- is now enjoying herself choosing her roles with relish much like her husband.

The only reason I can think of why Amitabh wants to set up a business empire is because of his son Abhishek. While I agree it is an awesome task to carry the burden of your father's legacy on your young shoulders (by the way do you know of any superstar Indian actor who has produced a superstar son?), Bachchan Junior has been disappointing in films. Which incidentally reminds me of one more reason why I don't think Amitabh is a good businessman: He has failed to draw up a strategy for his son's Bollywood debut, unlike say Rakesh Roshan. Look at the kind of roles Amitabh did when he began his career, and look at what Abhishek is picking up. Look at the variety of roles that Hritik has picked up… but I am digressing.

As I mentioned before, Amitabh Bachchan aptly symbolises what is wrong with India's celebrities who want to be successful businesspersons. There are very few film actors who are very good businessmen. If you don't agree, then tell me: Is there any one individual whose business ranks amongst the amongst the top five industries in the country?. The closest that comes to my mind is Jeetendra with his Balaji Telefilms -- but then I would want to see how Balaji's stock performs one year after the KP scam.

What should film stars do to become the stars of the business world?

What would have Vijay done?

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