A sure sign of prosperous times is that the ones who’ve done really well are moving into new homes in the New Year.

Malaika Arora who sizzled as Munni has every reason to be glowing and crowing with delight. Her husband Arbaaz Khan, who was always known as Salman’s brother, has struck it rich with his first independent production Dabangg. Wiping out the unsuccessful past as an actor whose price steadily dwindled from “Rs 15 lakh to Rs 10 lakh and then Rs 5 lakh”, Arbaaz has got an adrenalin shot with this goldmine, which will keep him and his family in the gravy train for the rest of his life.

Malaika and Arbaaz have got themselves a new place and hope to start building their dream house next year. “Even if we can’t move in, we’d like to at least start working on it,” said Malaika, happiness all over her famous face. Arbaaz and she have waited for long to settle down in a sprawling house in a prime locality like Bandra where both of them are comfortable. The family of three (son Arhaan goes everywhere with them) is currently in New York, combining a bit of work with a holiday.

Farah Khan is another success story who has managed to stand on her own feet even after breaking away from Shah Rukh Khan. The straight-talking Farah makes no bones about the fact that she and her brother Sajid went through really tough times as kids and good times started only after she became a dancer before graduating to choreographer. One of her biggest achievements was when the siblings pooled their resources and bought a beautiful terrace flat in Juhu. It was lucky for them as Farah met and married Shirish Kunder and moved out; professionally too, she made her debut as a director with Main Hoon Naa with Shah Rukh backing her to the hilt.

Farah and Shirish moved into a duplex apartment with a terrace of their own. From here she made her second blockbuster, Om Shanti Om, again for SRK. It was here that she also had her three children, motherhood changing a lot of her priorities. By that, one is not talking of conventional changes like putting the career on the backburner (far from it) but in terms of realising that she’d rather own the IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) of all her work and bequeath that to her kids than work for only a fee with an outside producer. Of course, this realisation didn’t dawn on her until her relationship with SRK deteriorated. Apparently, when SRK kept Shirish’s directorial venture for his banner dangling for over two years, irreconcilable differences cropped up between the superstar and Farah. That’s when Farah decided to stand by her husband and the couple decided to stop depending on others to make films for them. They got Akshay Kumar to do the title of Tees Maar Khan, and he came in as co-producer too, struck all business deals for them and made it easier for Farah-Shirish to set up their home team. Tees Maar Khan is ready with its trailers and will be a Christmas release this year.

It’s a step up for Farah now as she’d tasted blood being her own producer. “And realised how much more money I can make directing films for myself,” she added with a wide grin.

The happy ending to the break-up with SRK is that she can now afford three floors of a swank high-rise which has its own private terrace and swimming pool. Farah, Shirish and the kids will be shifting in early next year.

Coincidentally, Farah is also a part of the success story of Dabangg as she choreographed Malaika’s raunchy Munni badnaam hui.

The other Dabangg star, Sonakshi Sinha, will also be moving into a new house next year. Ramayan, the Sinha bungalow in the richie-rich Juhu Scheme area, had to be pulled down after the floods five years ago damaged a good part of the ground floor. The Sinhas had it demolished and moved into Amrita Singh’s old bungalow for a while. But they moved out of that very soon as Shatru’s wife Punam found the place disconcerting. The Sinha family has been living in a friend’s large apartment for over a year as they wait for their bungalow Ramayan to be rebuilt brick by brick with several new storeys and separate floors for each child. Of course, this new bungalow has little to do with Sonakshi’s success as the well-heeled Sinhas don’t touch a paisa of her earnings. Rebuilding Ramayan is Shatru and Punam’s dream project and Sonakshi is only a lucky part-inheritor of this vast property.

Bharathi S. Pradhan is editor, The Film Street Journal