Akshay Kumar reportedly charged 80% of Cuttputlli budget? As Bollywood looks at recession, actors' fees need to be cut

With recession having set in many parts of the world, many industries are looking at a slowdown, accompanied with cost cutting and job lay offs. Talking of the impact on film industry in India, trade analysts warn that if filmmakers do not take correction measures now, a recession in Bollywood is unavoidable.

In conversation with Firstpost, film critic and trade analyst Taran Adarsh suggests that a strict correction is needed in the industry in order to save it from doom this year. In fact, he feels the correction process has already begun and that we must take a cue from the Southern film industry. “In the correction phase, cost cutting in terms of production value and production cost as well as the actors’ fees is needed. The expenses of filmmaking are already too high and on top of that, the exorbitant amount that actors charge is too high in Bollywood,” he says.

The need for correction was also felt in the southern industry last year when even though films had become successful, the profit margins for the makers of the films were very narrow due to the heavy remuneration of the actors.

“Till the time there’s no correction, nothing will move forward,” he adds. He also says that the impact of 2008 recession was different on Bollywood that this recession. “We had flops then too and the production cost too was high but now after the pandemic, flops have reached an all time high. That is why we need to invest more in content and scripts rather than paying actors huge fees,” he says. He says more investment is needed in the movie making process and in content — from writing to making.

As per reports, top actors in the industry have been charging more than half the budget of the films. Akshay Kumar, for instance is one of the highest paid actors in the industry. Even though he gave a series of flops in 2022, he charged almost 80% of the budget of the film, further narrowing down the profit margins. For Cuttputlli, that was made at a budget of Rs 150-crore, the actor reportedly charged Rs 120 crore, which is 80% of the budget.

Similarly, Cirkus, that crashed at the box office only earning Rs 32 crore, was made at a budget of Rs 150 crore, while actor Ranveer Singh’s fees was reported as Rs 25 crore. The yearender Thank God, that was made at a budget of Rs 50 crore, earned only Rs 48 crore (worldwide gross) while the actors Ajay Devgn and Sidharth Malhotra charged Rs 25 crore and Rs 7 crore, respectively.

Taran Adarsh shares that this year, a number of pan India films will be seen on screen and that is a positive sign.

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Reya Mehrotra