By Hindustan Times
Kareena Kapoor must act in eight films to earn what Salman Khan can pocket in exactly one film, that's around Rs 23-27 crore! Akshay Kumar, the star of the multi-star cast Housefull and Housefull 2, has not seen the housefull boards outside cinema halls for his solo starrers since what appears to be forever, but he still gets paid Rs 18-20 crore for each film he works in. Vidya Balan will have carried Kahaani to the winning post and bagged every award for The Dirty Picture, but would you suspect that even after two hits, she isn't the highest paid actress in Bollywood? That’s the dirty truth about star prices. Till the ’90s, Amitabh Bachchan was the one star paid in crores. Figuratively speaking, stars are meant to be living up there within the sky. But now, it's their prices which might be touching the sky.
Welcome then to the actual world of stars and their unreal prices. You may also even feel inclined to term their remunerations obscene, more vulgar than any adult sex film Bollywood has ever churned out.
Rules of engagement
Star prices are rarely, if ever, fixed, because actors make concessions for producers or directors who're friends or who're star names themselves. Stars also are emotional people. So that you have Shah Rukh Khan doing films for Yash Chopra and Karan Johar at a value that's not up to what he would demand from other banners.
Salman had, years ago, gone out of his solution to accommodate a movie with the down-and-out Saawan Kumar Tak when the latter requested him to make his film with lesser actors saleable along with his presence. Besides, if a script catches the fondness of a celeb or if he's keen to work with a director or producer, he doesn’t mind creating a concession in his fees because, after all, stars need good scripts, banners and directors up to producers and directors need top stars.
Like every other product, the cost of a celeb depends on the laws of demand and provide. The greater the demand and/or lower the availability (read availability of stars), the upper the fee. If all the family of lead stars is regarded as as one unit and the entire producers put together, another, it's clearly a case of demand for stars exceeding the provision. That’s since the choice of films produced per annum in Bollywood is around 140-150 however the saleable heroes or folks that may also be cast in lead roles are barely 14 or 15. Ditto for the leading ladies. On an average, therefore, each star must be working in 10 films every year, which doesn’t happen now.
Ultra-selective heroes like Aamir Khan and Shah Rukh do one or two films whereas other A-listers like Salman and Akshay are seen in two, three or four films once a year. There's actors who've six to 8 releases a year but they're only a few in number.
That our actors, especially the A-list ones, command obscenely high prices is an open secret. Not only in absolute terms, although one were to have a look at the ratio of flops to hits (80:20) every year, it's anybody’s guess that the majority of our stars get undeservedly high prices. For, even supposing an excellent script is the principle the reason is, a movie works on the ticket windows, the celebs have a big role to play, especially the hero and heroine who work as magnets to attract the audience to the cinemas, initially a minimum of. When you consider that 80 per cent of the flicks bomb yearly and 90 per cent don’t even open decently enough to justify the high prices paid to their lead actors, it's clear that almost all of our stars are paid remuneration that may be way over they deserve.
Box office magnets
Even today, it's at the strength of face value that the paying public patronises a film, no less than for the primary couple of days. In that sense, greater than even the scriptwriter, director and producer, it's the star, especially the hero, who, in a fashion of speaking, is the ISI mark for a movie. In other words, when a celebrity is calling for Rs 10, 15, or 20 crore for a film, he is, by implication, assuring his producer of a perfect opening. But for the audience, his presence in a movie is sort of a promise of quality cinema or, at least, value for his or her money. It's for this reason faith which the audience has in a celebrity (that the star will offer them an entertaining movie) that the latter commands the fee he does. Or, only that actor should actually be considered worth every crore he's paid, who ensures that his film opens to bumper houses and in addition ensures that it offers entertainment to the paying public. So, Aamir, Salman and Shah Rukh appear to be the one three stars who're being paid what they deserve. Ajay Devgn and Hrithik Roshan are inching their technique to that position however the occasional Guzaarish or Aakrosh pulls them down.
Bang for the buck?
Akshay’s 20-crore price ticket is inaccurate because his solo films just aren’t working on the box-office; Sunny Deol, Shahid Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan may deliver an occasional success but they’ve also given huge duds, because of this they lack the consistency of Aamir, Shah Rukh and Salman. However, the charges the celebrities charge don’t vary in keeping with the fate in their films – the pay packet isn't cut if a movie flops. But Aamir Khan is a category except. charging a fee and a percentage in profits, Aamir now keeps a share within the profits his starrers make. “That way, IT'S NOT THAT I AM burdening the film’s budget with my cost, and i'm also able to put my neck at the line,” says Aamir matter-of-factly. “By not taking anything upfront and only charging a fee for acting if the film makes a profit, I'M openly stating that if the audience doesn’t like my film, I don’t deserve a penny.”
ActorsThe Indian obsession with a male child manifests itself in film viewing habits too. That explains why hero-oriented films open much better than heroine-oriented ones. Women-oriented films like Nobody Killed Jessica and Kahaani started slowly and scored only afterwards. The Dirty Picture, for all its claim of being a woman-centric story, still boasted of 3 heroes, hit music and titillating fare! Kareena Kapoor, the heroine of Heroine, was paid a reported fee of R4 crore but she won’t be entitled to even one per cent of the profits within the film. By the way, Sridevi was the one actress who nearly touched the one-crore mark within the Nineties. The leading lady of such heroine-oriented films as Chandni, Nagina and Chaalbaaz had, years ago, signed a movie for Rs 1 crore but that film never got made.
Character actors rank even less than heroines within the pay hierarchy. But over the years, supporting actors have started charging exorbitantly. So that you have Irrfan getting Rs 1.5 crore and Paresh Rawal insisting on a fee with seven zeros or, at least, Rs 75-80 lakh.
(1) All figures are approximate.
(2) Rates/fees are never fixed. Adjustments/concessions are nearly always made.
(3) Aamir Khan charges the utmost fee among the entire stars, for endorsements.
(4) Shah Rukh Khan probably earns more yearly by the use of endorsement fees than for acting in films. He endorses a couple of dozen brands but works in a single or two films a year.
(5) Shah Rukh has always maintained that he wouldn’t mind over-charging for endorsements and stage shows but would like under-charging film producers because he owes his stardom to films and movie producers.
(6) Salman Khan isn't as popular for brand endorsements in comparison to the dimensions of his superstardom on account of his court cases.
(7) Till about four years ago Saif Ali Khan used to endorse the top collection of brands but he has since reduce at the choice of products he sells.
(8) For functioning on stage at televised events (like awards functions), stars receives a commission almost the same quantity they charge per day for endorsements. For non-televised events, the payment is set 50-60% of the endorsement fee per day.
Top Draws
The cool club of Bollywood’s Khan Crorepatis nearly always ensures a spectacular opening on the box office
Salman Khan
Acting fee per film 23-27cr
Endorsement fee (per day) 1.5cr
Aamir Khan
Acting fee per film (share in profit, could go as much as) 40cr
Endorsement fee (per day) 4cr
Shah Rukh Khan
Acting fee per film 20-25cr (including share in profit)
Endorsement fee (per day) 2-3cr
Stars’ big bucks come from…
Movies
Guest Appearances
Endorsements
Stage shows
Hosting stage shows
Hosting TV shows
Attendance at weddings/functions
Judging reality TV shows
Dancing/performing at events
The only appearance for which stars, thankfully, don’t charge money are those made at funerals of friends, acquaintances and revered industry people.
Kat BeboBig players
Actresses lag behind the boys in terms of money
Katrina Kaif
Acting fee per film 3-4cr
Endorsement fee (per day) 1-1.25cr
Kareena Kapoor
Acting fee per film 3-4cr
Endorsement fee (per day) 1-1.25cr
Vidya Balan
Acting fee per film 2.5-3cr
Endorsement fee (per day) 0.25-0.5cr
Priyanka Chopra
Acting fee per film 2-3 cr
Endorsement fee (per day) 0.65-0.75 cr
Deepika Padukone
Acting fee per film 1-2.5 cr
Endorsement fee (per day) 0.5-0.75 cr
Anushka Sharma
Acting fee per film 1-1.5 cr
Endorsement fee (per day) 0.25-0.4 cr
Colour of producers’ money
With the remuneration of actors, actresses and
technicians soaring, how does a producer still finally end up making profits? Well, it’s not likely tough because business has also grown manifold within the last 10 years. The principle reasons for the expansion are the high ticket prices in cinemas and the ever-growing sources of
revenue, particularly sale of satellite rights. The desperation of corporate houses is one more reason why producers of star-cast films don't seem to be generally within the red.
Since most corporate houses must show turnover to shareholders, they assign projects without weighing the professionals and cons. Because it is, they've deep pockets as a result of availability of public money and institutional funding. Since they fund star-studded films, the
producers of these films could finally end up laughing all of the method to the bank even though the corporates incur losses as a result of high costs. And frankly, even corporates don’t incur losses of their books of account because most of them amortise only 50 per cent of the price of a movie within the first year. This amounts to accounting jugglery but that’s how it is.
This isn't to mention that these costs haven't had an adverse effect at the viability of projects. Lots of Akshay Kumar’s films wouldn't be termed flops if his price were to be a 3rd of what it's. And if that needed to happen, most of his producers who have
been making losses, would finally end up making profits.
Enter, the actor-producer
Not satisfied with earning handsomely as actors, a lot of our leading men have turned producers. Right from Shah Rukh, Aamir and Salman to Akshay, Ajay Devgn, Sunny, Anil, Amitabh, Saif, Sanjay Dutt and John Abraham, every actor worth his name and possibly unworthy of his crores has jumped directly to the production bandwagon. When the success ratio of movies is simply 20 per cent and when it's the producer who suffers losses if a movie flops, why would stars turn to this sort of risky business? It's because of 3 reasons:
(i) Of the 20 per cent films which click every year, 75-85 per cent are star-studded fares and so, it is smart for stars to provide films with themselves acting in them.
(ii) This is a fallacy to think that it's the producer who bears the brunt of the losses when a movie bombs on the box-office. If a movie is pre-sold to distributors or a company house, the producer could make a profit even supposing the film fails on the ticket windows as, in such cases, the loss will be the corporate’s or borne by the distributors. Examples of producers being profitable while corporates or distributors incurred heavy losses are aplenty. Omkara, Guzaarish, Tees Maar Khan, Kites are some.
(iii) With theatrical earnings being just one a part of the revenue stream of a film, a star-producer could make gains even though his film doesn’t fare well on the turnstiles, by pre-selling satellite, audio and other rights.
This isn't to mention that star-producers never make losses. Of course, they do. Saif Ali Khan, nicknamed Travel Agent Vinod after the various countries his character in his home production, Agent Vinod, travels to, will finally end up burning his fingers and toes within the thriller. Had Saif only acted in it, there has been absolute confidence of him losing money. But in most cases, star-producers finally end up making profits because star-studded films have better possibilities of clicking with the general public and in addition because star-struck corporate houses are willing to fund films of star-producers and take the danger of distributing them.
Interestingly, stars never brag about their earnings the best way film producers do by announcing the gross and net collections in their released films on huge hoardings and newspaper advertisements. Therefore, in an industry where stars and their chartered accountants are the one ones who know their exact income, the grapevine and industry talk are the one sources of data about star earnings, star prices etc. But these are tried and tested reference points.
Specalists’ fees
Directors’ Cut
With star prices touching the sky, directors also started demanding fat salaries on the turn of the brand new century. Highly-paid directors include Raj Kumar Hirani, Rohit Shetty, Anees Bazmee, Farah Khan, Imtiaz Ali, Rajkumar Santoshi, Prabhu Deva, Sajid Khan and the like.
Of these, top ones like Hirani ask for a share in profits in order that their fee could go as much as R20 crore per film, or more! Probably the most other above-named directors charge between R3 crore and R10 crore per film. Yash Chopra, Aditya Chopra, Karan Johar, Rakesh Roshan and Sooraj Barjatya may well be a number of the highest paid filmmakers of Bollywood but when they aren’t, this is because they simply direct films for his or her own banners, not for outsiders. Years ago, when there has been a crazy boom in production, Anees Bazmee was rumoured to have signed a movie for a business house for R20 crore, besides a share in profits! Of course, the film never got made since the boom didn't last.
Bring at the money: it’s within the script
Years back, writing duo Salim-Javed’s names used to adorn the hoardings of movies when they gave hits corresponding to Zanjeer, Yaadon Ki Baaraat and Haath Ki Safai, multi function year (1973). Almost 40 years later, the tribe of writers felt short-changed. But things are changing for the simpler. So impressed was Aamir Khan with the script of Talaash when he heard it that he decided to pay 3 per cent of the profit of Talaash to Reema Kagti as her fee for direction and a pair of per cent of the profits as remuneration to Reema and Zoya for penning the script. It's anybody’s guess that the two per cent relating to Talaash will determine to a minimum of Rs 1 crore i.e. Rs 50 lakh to Reema and Zoya each. This, as against the sooner decided fee of Rs 5 lakh each.
If it was Salim-Javed who made the industry realise the significance of writers, it’s now Kagti and Javed’s daughter, Zoya, who’ve brought their contribution into focus again.
Ruling the charts, note for note
Not just stars but technicians have also hiked their rates during the last decade. Among composers, just a R Rahman gets paid as a percentage of the associated fee his music gets sold for. That way, he gets around Rs 2-4 crore per film. Other composers charge between Rs 30 and Rs 60 lakh. How it works for a top music composer is that this: he charges around Rs 10-20 lakh per song; if there are six songs, he gets paid Rs 60 lakh to Rs 1.2 crore. After paying off the expenses of recording, including fees of singers, lyricists, charges of the recording room etc., the composer is in general left with Rs 30-60 lakh. Among lyricists, Javed Akhtar could be the top paid (Rs 3 lakh per song), followed by Gulzar (Rs 2 lakh). Other renowned song writers charge anything starting from Rs 10,000 to Rs 50,000 per song. Even action directors, who were paid moderately, nowadays demand Rs 30-40 lakh per film. If the action scenes are too many and too stylish, the action master’s pay packet could even go as much as Rs 75 lakh.
Small screen, big bucks
Star TV Show Payment/episode
Salman Khan Dus Ka Dum Rs 1-1.25 cr
Shah Rukh Khan Kaun Banega Crorepati Rs 1.0 cr
Amitabh Bachchan Kaun Banega Crorepati Rs 0.75-1 cr
Hrithik Roshan Just Dance Rs 0.75-0.8 cr
Akshay Kumar Khatron Ke Khiladi, Master Chef Rs 0.7-0.8 cr
Priyanka Chopra Khatron Ke Khiladi Rs 0.3-0.4 cr
Madhuri Dixit Jhalak Dikhla Ja Rs 0.1-0.2 cr
Farah Khan, Rohit Shetty For judging TV shows Rs 0.1-0.2 cr
Komal Nahta is a trade analyst and the editor of Film Information
