PAY DAY: Kangana Ranaut is said to have charged Rs11 crore for one of her movies.
So we know that Deepika Padukone, with a string of never-ending blockbusters is the reigning queen of Bollywood. Just behind her is Katrina Kaif, who will now be back in the limelight when the Kabir Khan movie Phantom hits the screens. That will be her only release this year. Last year, she only had Bang Bang to her credit but it was a big hit. But in 2016 she has three movies slated and that might put her back in the reckoning for the top spot. In the race is also Priyanka Chopra, with a slew of big banners and hits.
But guess who charges the most for a movie? Apparently, none of the three. The name that unexpectedly features for that title is Kangana Ranaut. This was an actress who was practically out of work a few years ago but then did a reinvention that has left Bollywood floored.
News now comes that Kangana has charged Rs11 crore for a movie. That is just under US$2 million. It is not a small sum even by the standards of male stars. She was asked recently at a media event about charging so much for a movie and, while not confirming the figure, argued that she was justified in quoting a high price because unlike other actresses, she only did one movie in a year and that took all her time and energy.
She said actresses also don’t get the other profit sharing arrangements that male stars have with producers by which their fee is low but they get more if the movie becomes a hit.
There is also however an argument that says Kangana might not be the highest paid actress because this is a one-off thing. Deepika is said to get around Rs7 crore for every movie she does while Kangana cannot hope for Rs11 crore always. And that if producers paid her so much, the movie would just not be financially viable.
There is some merit to this logic. Her movies like Queen went onto become huge money-spinners because they were shot on a low to medium budget and profits were multiple times the cost of the movie. One of the reasons she got these great plot driven movies is because the filmmakers didn’t have too much money to get bigger stars. With exorbitant fees, the movie automatically becomes a big budget one and, therefore, that much more difficult to make a profit from.
