Well, we all know that the actors, actress, directors, music directors and other technicians are highly paid, but have we ever imagined how much they are being paid.
The pay cheques are rising as fast if not faster than that of those in other professions. Here we are going to discuss about the remuneration paid per film along with some details of revenue share apart from their earnings from ad contracts. The remuneration charged by the actors, actresses, directors and other technicians changes from time to time depending on their hits and flops graph. Coming to heroines it completely depends on their performance, glamour show and sex appeal apart from their career graph.
In fact, top Telugu and Malayalam actors face the buzz from desperate producers to cut their fees, but this is not the scenario in Tamil. Kollywood is enjoying a good season while other industries are battling financial problems and are asking the cast and crew to reduce their remuneration. Let us take a look at the salary details of Kollywood actors, actresses, directors and music directors. We will go ahead with the salary details of the actors first which will be followed by actress, directors and music directors.
Kollywood handsome hunk Suriya who had monster hits to his credit, is pocketing about Rs 15- 20 crore a film. He earned lots of craze among the audiences for his outstanding performance, handsome looks and off course his simple and positive attitude which has brought him a good name and fame in the industry.
In spite of having a series of flops under his belt till Kavalan, Vijay kept hiking his salary. The actor is said to be paid anywhere between Rs 14-16 crore per film and stands in second place in the rankings. He is has more interesting projects in his kitty and may also increase his pay if two of his future projects turn out to be hits. Ajith takes the third place by reportedly charging Rs 12 crore per film. Vikram closely follows Ajith by charging Rs 10 crore.
Silambarasan and Dhanush are said to be charging anywhere between Rs 4-7 crore. Karthi, the fast-rising star, is said to be receiving over Rs 5 crore. Jeeva, Jayam Ravi, Arya, Vishal charge around Rs 1-3 crore per film. Srikanth, Prashanth charges Rs 30-50 lakhs. So now you may doubt on why we are not discussing a single word about Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan. Yes, we are coming to them; it is just because they completely belong to a different group.
Sources reveal that Rajini is getting anywhere between Rs 30-40 crore per film apart from enjoying a major share in the profits after the release of the film. It is known that he doesn't charge any advance or look out for the overseas rights. But surprisingly for Rana the actor was paid Rs 24 crores as his first installment.
Coming to Universal hero Kamal Haasan his rate card is completely different as he takes an advance before starting a film along with share in profits. Well that is all about the actors and now let us go ahead with the actresses stunning salary details.
The top in the list is Ileana who is said to be the highest paid actress in South as she is paid Rs 1.5 crore for Shankar's Nanban. But coming to her Bollywood film she has offered a 60% discount to the Bollywood filmmakers in order to snap more films in Bollywood. Latest pop up is that Goan beauty agreed to reduce her remuneration to Rs 1 Crores for a Telugu film as she is followed by a series of flops in Telugu. Close to the heels of Ileana is Leggy lass Anushka who reportedly charges close to Rs 1 crore for a film and there is no language barrier be it a Telugu or Tamil film. Trisha, the leading lady in both Tamil and Telugu, follows Anushka by getting anywhere between Rs.80 lakhs-1 crore.
Genelia D’Souza who has done films in Kollywood, Tollywood and Bollywood gets something close to Rs 1 crore for doing a film. The bubbly actress is coming up with some interesting projects like Velayudham in Tamil, Force in Bollywood which is the remake of Suriya's Kaaka Kaakha and in Telugu one film. Milky beauty Tamanna who almost vanished from Kollywood but still promises to come back is pocketing 50 lakhs to do a film in Tamil and charges around 75 lakhs for a Telugu film as she has more demand in Tollywood. The hottest and happening beauty of Kollywood, Hansika Motwani charges a very reasonable salary and reliable sources suggest Hansika is being paid Rs. 50 lakhs per film!
Special mention is about Asin, who left Kollywood for making her career in Bollywood for some time. The actress is back in demand and she tops the list with charging a remuneration of nearly Rs 2 crore. Next comes Deeksha Seth, Amala Paul, Oviya and Taapsee who are being paid somewhere in between Rs.20-50 lakhs per film! The remuneration of the actresses changes when there is a change in the language they act. So the heroines who act in multi languages have different charges that vary from language to language.
It is not only actors or actresses but the directors too are paid almost equal to them. The directors are now trying to beat the actors and prove their rates can also be exorbitant. Director Shankar has charged Rs 2 crore for Boys and later with the success of Anniyan & Sivaji – The Boss he raised his pay to Rs.4 Crores. Now after the success of Endhiran – The Robot, the director has steadily increased his rate to Rs. 9Crores. Latest pop up as per a Tamil daily is that Shankar is being paid Rs 12 CR salary alone for Nanban from Gemini Film Circuit.
Ace director AR Murugadoss is getting paid Rs.7Crores with the success of Ghajini and more over his films have taken Tamil Cinema to the next level. Gautham Vasudev Menon is being paid Rs 4-5 crore for each film while director Krish enjoys a salary of Rs 3 crore per each film in Telugu. Ace directors K. Balachander and Bharathiraja are pocketing Rs 1Crore for each film. Well the other directors in Kollywood are charging as per their hits and flops record.
Music directors too charge a whopping amount for composing the music for each film. The Top Kollywood music directors list includes the names of Harris Jayraj, Yuvan Shankar Raja, Devi Sri Prasad, Mani Sharma, Thaman, Keeravani, Koti, Mickey J Meyer, G. V. Prakash Kumar, Vijay Anthony and others. Let's take a look at some of the top of top music director's remuneration details.
AR Rahman, academy award winner charges Rs 3 Crores for his wonderful and magnificent compositions. ARR is closely followed by Harris Jayraj one of the top music director off course most happening too is charging Rs 1.5-2 crore for each film. Next comes Yuvan Shankar Raja the most busy composer of Kollywood is currently charging Rs 1 crore as his salary. He has nearly 10-12 projects in hand at present. Devi Sri Prasad the most energetic music director is paid Rs 1-1.5 crore.
Melody king Mani Sharma is getting Rs 75 lakhs-1 crore for his compositions for one film. Thaman actor turned music director is charging Rs 50-60 lakhs as his remuneration. Mickey J Meyer of Inidhu Inidhu fame is charging Rs 30-40 lakhs.
Ace comedian Vadivelu's one day call sheet is worth Rs 6 Lakhs, Vivek charges Rs 20-30 lakhs while the most happening and busy comedian Santhanam charges Rs 30 lakhs for just 15 days of his work. If more dates are needed he will be paid Rs 5 lakh per day.
The salary structure changes according to their ups and downs in their career but top league stars always enjoy the same fruits as they already created a healthy market share. If compared with the last few years salary graph there is a drastic change as the salaries of actors, actresses, directors and music directors have increased enormously.
Our Kollywood actors however earn a lot by way of advertising contracts. Sometimes the actresses are being paid for an item number as much as they get for a film; again this depends on their fame, glamour show and sex appeal. Their earnings are almost close to that of Bollywood stars. The figures are approximates based on estimates by film industry sources.
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