Bollywood’s 5-year report card brings to light that its five musketeers-Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Akshay Kumar, Hrithik Roshan and Salman Khan-have together netted a business of approximately Rs 1830 crore from the ticket windows alone. And, if you add the revenue from satellite, home-video and other mediums to this figure, you can easily see why these men are on top. The year 2009 didn’t start auspiciously for the superstar brigade- Shah Rukh had a lukewarm Billu Barber while Akshay had two duds (Chandni Chowk to China and 8 x 10 Tasveer) and one uncertified Kambakht Ishq- but Bollywood continues to rely heavily on these stars. It’s easy to explain why. Trade sources estimate a total of Rs 500 crore came from Akshay’s 17 releases in the five year-period from 2004 to 2008, Rs 400 crore from Shah Rukh’s nine releases, Rs 365 crore from Aamir’s five releases, Rs 350 crore from Salman Khan’s 13 releases and Rs 215 crore from Hrithik’s three films. Trade analyst Komal Nahata says, “Despite these actors’ ups and downs, Bollywood depends a lot on these five men because they have a fairly high success ratio. You have to go by aggregates; individual films may run or flop, but these men net good averages. Akshay leads the pack with his earnings by virtue of the fact that he has done the maximum number of films.” This year, too, he has had three releases; Shah Rukh has had only one release and Aamir is yet to open his account. Hrithik was seen in a cameo in Luck By Chance. However, when it comes to rating the five men, Nahata says, “Aamir and Shah Rukh are neck to neck at number 1 and Hrithik and Akshay share the number 2 spot. Salman currently occupies a solo place at number three because he hasn’t had a spectacular release after Partner.” Trade consultant Amod Mehra, however, disagrees, “Aamir is a clear number 1 because each of his films in the last five years has been different.” Pointing out that Mangal Panday was the only flop in Aamir’s bouquet of five; Mehra says that the actor’s other four … Distributed by Tubemogul.