For last year?s Diwali blockbuster, the retro flick Om Shanti Om, starring Shah Rukh Khan and newcomer Deepika Padukone, director Farah Khan gathered 31 stars from Bollywood including Jeetendra, Dharmendra, Rekha, Sanjay Dutt, Saif Ali Khan, Shilpa Shetty, Kajol, Karisma, Salman Khan and Govinda for the ?mother of all item numbers?. Coincidence or not, when the film was released by distributor Eros International across 1,400 plus screens globally, the first week collections were staggering. It amassed $13.5 million in India, $1.5 million in the UK and over $2 million in North America in its first week itself, making it one of the best openings in Bollywood ever.

?Item numbers have become a part and parcel of many Bollywood commercial Hindi films,? admits Dhilin Mehta, MD, Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision.

According to Bollywood insiders, A-grade stars either do item numbers and guest appearances as favours for free or obviously charge a bomb for it. Recently, we saw both SRK and Hrithik Roshan gyrate to the same song for Krazzy4, a Rakesh Roshan production that bombed at the box office.

Yes, sometimes, the film doesn?t fire at the box office, but audiences remember the song and dance routine for long. With the industry now releasing scores of prints overseas, it?s imperative for a film to do well in the opening week??that?s when the largest collections typically come,? says an insider.

Think Aishwarya Rai in Kajra Re (Bunty Aur Babli) or Bipasha Basu in Beedi Jalaile (Omkara) and Billo Rani (Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal) and Phoonk De (No Smoking) or even Kareena in Yeh Mera Dil (Don). Though Vishal Bhardwaj?s Othello adaptation Omkara was critically acclaimed, it didn?t do particularly well at the BO. But Bhardwaj himself was astounded at the reaction to the song. That year (2006) no party was complete without Beedi Jalaile.

Then, there are the item girls?Malaika Arora (Chaiya Chaiya) or Yana Gupta (Babuji Zara…) or Isha Koppikar (Khallas).

So, how do ?item? economics work? With stars charging the moon nowadays?as Subhash Ghai puts it, ?commerce has gone to actors? hands??how does a film justify spending lakhs, maybe a crore even, on a single song and dance?

Says Mehta, ?Item numbers are important for the film to some extent as it helps in getting a reasonable opening. It helps to create an awareness among the audience before the release.? According to Shikha Kapur, head, marketing, UTV Motion Pictures, ?An item number does instigate the audience to connect with film. To begin with, it does drive up music sales. But it doesn?t generate any box-office numbers.?

Entertainment analysts say a good production house will not spend a bomb on an item song because effectively, you are then hinging the fate of your film on one song, which is silly. Apparently, SRK did it for free in Krazzy4, which is good news for Rakesh Roshan Productions as the film didn?t really sizzle at the BO.

?Item numbers, however good, cannot attract audiences for more than five days,? insists Dale Bhagwagar, publicist to Hrithik Roshan, Shilpa Shetty, Viveik Oberoi,

Randeep Hooda and films of Ritesh Sidhwani-Farhan Akhtar and Ashok Amritraj. Shetty, (if you leave Helen or even Madhuri in Ek Do Teen aside) it can be safely said, started the whole ?item? number craze when she did the UP, Bihar Lootne? routine for a film nobody cares to remember (Shool 1999, if you really want to know!). She is also doing a number for Tarun Mansukhani-directed upcoming film Dostana, from the stable of Dharma Productions, a film production company of Yash and Karan Johar.

Though no one?s willing to come on record on how much a star charges for an item number??it could be anything between a token Rs 11 to lakhs of rupees?, according to Bollywood insiders big stars can demand as much as Rs 50 lakh and go up to a crore for a song and dance routine. Says another industry watcher, ?The money an actor demands depends on his/her current status. For instance, Kareena?s charges post Jab We Met are certainly on the ascendant, even for an item number.?

Also, over the last couple of years, music companies have been insisting on one song that can drive sales, points out Sarita Patil, head, feature films, Percept Picture Company. According to the recent PwC-Ficci report, globally, the music industry is under-performing and the trend is similar in India. The overall music industry grew marginally by 1% in 2007 and stands at an estimated Rs 700 crore. With physical music sales in decline, analysts say it makes sense for music companies to insist on a song-and-dance routine to push up sales.

?Item numbers are a big pull and definitely get people to the multiplex on Fridays but ultimately it?s the film which does the talking and content drives the film,? adds Patil, insisting that a large number of people visited the theatres to see SRK and Hrithik Ros-han do their act in Krazzy 4.

?The overseas audience knows that an item track by a star does not amount to the star having a full-fledged role in the film. Incorporating a big name in an item track (a typical Bollywood catchphrase) helps in bringing visibility and attention to a film in the form of high airplay on television and radio,? remarks Tanuj Garg, head, UK & Europe, Studio 18. ?One can argue that that translates into a higher box-office taking!? he adds.

In 2008, there are a slew of item numbers coming up?Katrina Kaif in Ashtavinayak?s Blue?she is apparently charging a crore plus, but no one will confirm it?Sophie Chaudhary in Sanjay Gadhvi?s Kidnap, Urmila Matondkar in Karzzzz (remake of Ghai?s film), Shetty in Dostana and so forth.

Says Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision?s Mehta, ?In Kidnap, we have Sophie Chaudhary performing a song which is not purely an item number. It takes the story forward and it is also a kind of celebration song as far as the film is concerned.? As a production house, Mehta says, it doesn?t merely put item numbers for the sake of putting it. ?Putting item numbers without any reason can also sometimes affect the film.?

As Kapur of UTV puts it, ?Don?t underestimate the audience. An item number can get an audience, but they will stay only if the content is good.? Says Bhagwagar: ?An item number can at best bail out a small budget film. If a song and dance number of a Rs 2 crore film catches on, and it recovers the money in the first week, it?s a saving grace for the film.?