Bollywood Bleeding: Are Akshay Kumar’s Rs 130 crore and Ranbir Kapoor’s Rs 70 crore justified ? Trade experts reveal | Exclusive

Bollywood has been suffering with back-to-back big budget films performing poorly at the box office. We ask the trade analysts if big remuneration demanded by the likes of Akshay Kumar and Ranbir Kapoor is justified.

Bollywood is bleeding. There are no doubts about it. B-town’s half yearly report is a cause for worry and alarm. Despite big ticket titles boasting A - list heroes, Hindi films haven’t delivered. The year's biggest Hindi hit so far is the Kartik Aaryan starter Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2. What is adding to the worry is the fact that regional film titles like KGF 2 and Pushpa: The Rise are making big noise with their content. Also, another cause for concern is the cost factor of signing up A-list stars like Shahid Kapoor, Akshay Kumar, and Ranbir Kapoor who haven’t been able to yet deliver what they set out to promise in terms of box office success . While the Tollywood film industry is halting all shoots from August 1 to take stock of the situation and work out the economics of film making, Bollywood is yet to take any such preventive or corrective measures.

In an exclusive conversation with trade experts, IndiaToday.in took stock of the ground situation and asked some very important questions.

Akshay Kumar is the highest paid actor in the country. There is buzz in trade circles that the actor charged a whopping sum of Rs 130 crore for his yet to release film Cinderella. His last release, Samrat Prithviraj, didn’t bring in the expected numbers. For smaller films, the actor relies heavily on a profit-sharing model. Ranbir Kapoor, whose last film Shamshera, is one of the biggest duds of the year, has reportedly been paid Rs 75 crore for his upcoming Sandeep Reddy Vanga film Animal. Ranveer Singh, whose last release Jayeshbhai Jordaar, made no big noise at the ticket window and has been floating a signing fee that’s Rs 50 crore plus for his 2023 roster. Will he get those figures is a big question.

Akshaye Rathi, who is a film exhibitor, shared his worry about this skewered mathematics surrounding actors and their fees, “The time to reassess is not now, the time to do it was more than five to seven years ago. And this is something that has been long overdue for the simple reason that, ultimately, filmmakers depend on the face of the star to recover the money that's invested in the film is very ambitious.

Trade expert Taran Adarsh opines that Bollywood works on relationships and not box office numbers. He reveals, “ It all depends on different producers, actors, the actor and producer relationship, a lot of times these equations come into play. But it is also important that the revenue model needs to be streamlined.”

Trade analyst Ramesh Bala explained that it is not just Bollywood which is suffering. “Generally, all the industries in India are going through a tough time, not just Bollywood. Even in Tollywood, Malayalam cinema is also going through a tough time. Bollywood is more visible because it is a pan-Indian industry, even the boycott calls are more visible in Bollywood than compared to other industries. But the situation for regional films is also alarming.”