Forbes’ list for the World’s Highest-Paid actors 2015, released recently, brought in quite a few surprises. For starters, Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, who has long been at the top 10 of the list was ranked 18th this year, whereas Ranbir Kapoor was down on the 30th position perhaps because of the series of flops he has witnessed in recent past.
Avengers’ Iron Man, actor Robert Downey Jr., topped the list with earnings of $80 million all thanks to his top-grossing super hero movie Avengers: Age of Ultron. On the second spot is Jackie Chan with earnings of $50 million, Fast and Furious actor Vin Diesel at the third spot with earnings of $47 million and American Sniper actor Bradley Cooper on the 4th position with $41.5 million in earnings.
Surprisingly enough, B-town bad boys Salman Khan and Akshay Kumar made it to the top ten of the list ranking seventh and ninth respectively. Tying with Salman is Amitabh Bachchan, with each of them making an income of $33.5 million, which is more than American actors Chris Pratt and Oscar winner Gone Girl actor Ben Affleck combined, “without being US household names”, said Forbes.
Akshay, one of ‘Bollywood’s busiest leading men’ currently, ranks ninth on the list with $32.5 million in annual earnings – equal to Hollywood A-listers George Clooney and Brad Pitt’s combined haul in the same time frame.