Economists hunt their own wood items

Arvind Panagariya, writes in ET “Total revenues of the industry have grown from Rs 60 billion in 2004 to Rs 96 billion in 2007. This represents an annual growth of 17% in nominal terms…… Despite this transformation, one feature of Bollywood films has remained omnipresent: the item number. From Cuckoo and Helen to Bindu and Padma Khanna to Mallika Sherawat and Rakhi Sawant, the item girl has remained an indispensable ingredient in Indian films. Indeed, it has grown in respect so that even superstar actresses such as Madhuri Dixit and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan now contribute their own item numbers! ”