MUMBAI:

Shah Rukh Khan, the Badshah of Bollywood, is an even bigger king of the advertising world, according to his tax figures. The superstar has paid an advance tax of Rs 270 million on his estimated income during the current financial year of 2007/08, but a major share of it has gone into paying for his income from endorsing a slew of products and other sources.

Sources in the advertising agency for which the superstar has worked reveal that his income from endorsements fetches him Rs1.5 billion a year, the highest for any Indian advertising ‘model’.

In comparison, though Amitabh Bachchan endorses more products than Khan, earnings from his annual endorsements do not cross Rs1.2 billion. Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, two other Bollywood stars who source a good part of their incomes from endorsements, earn a little less than Rs1 billion each from advertising assignments annually.

King Khan’s earnings from endorsements stand at a notch much above the emoluments that he gets for starring in movies, which, according to his own admission, never goes beyond Rs 50 to60 million per assignment.

Additionally, he also made a quick profit of Rs 400 million across the table by selling the world distribution rights of his home production Om Shanti Om to Eros International for

Rs 750 million as against the production cost of Rs 350 million.