Bollywood actors’ wives mean money

NEW DELHI - Agence France-Presse

Indian actor Hritik Roshan (L) and his wife Sussanne pose at an event. AFP Photo

Bollywood wives were once expected to stay loyal, discreet and out of sight, but today they forge influential careers as businesswomen, designers and producers as India embraces celebrity culture. They appear on magazine covers, present television shows, advertise everything from soap to sofas and increasingly head their own budding money-making empires, claiming their share of the spotlight.

The list of “star wives” in the Mumbai-based film industry is headed by superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s wife Gauri Khan, a successful film producer and now an independent entrepreneur who is regarded as a pioneer of the redefined role.

Khan, 42, has since branched out into interior design, launching her own line of furniture in April in collaboration with another Bollywood wife, Sussanne Roshan, who is married to heartthrob actor Hrithik Roshan. Roshan, 37, set up an imposing interior design store in Mumbai called The Charcoal Project two years ago.

High-profile wife

More recently, in a move echoing American lifestyle guru Martha Stewart, she launched The Home Label, an interior decor website selling products endorsed by her.

Adhuna Akhtar, who is married to actor-director Farhan Akhtar, is another high-profile Bollywood wife, working as one of the country’s leading hairstylists. The 44-year-old Akhtar now has 17 high-profile salons scattered across India with plans to open in Dubai.