Mumbai: Top actors in India charge a bizarre fee for films these days. It was reported recently that Thalapathy Vijay is charging a whopping Rs 200 crore for Lokesh Kanagaraj’s upcoming action thriller, Leo. But mere three decades ago, superstars couldn’t ask for a number this high, including big Bollywood names like Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan. This one Telugu superstar changed the movie industry by demanding Rs 1 crore and breaking all the barriers.
Do you know who is he?
The actor is none other than Megastar Chiranjeevi who charged a whopping Rs 1.25 crores for K Viswanath’s film Aapadbandhavudu in 1992. The film which was released that year was able to garner tremendous success. The same year Stardust magazine named the actor..“Bigger than Bachchan”. Big B reportedly charged Rs 85-90 lakhs per film then. Chiranjeevi has had a huge fan following since he gave back-to-back box office hits in the 90s. No one could hold a challenge to his stardom.
It was after this that other stars also joined the 1-crore club. In 1994 Tamil superstar Kamal Hassan charged Rs 1 crore. Rajnikanth soon joined the bandwagon. Bollywood stars also joined the trend. When Amitabh made his comeback after the financial disaster his production company faced, the veteran actor started charging a crore in 1995. It was later in the 90s that big superstars like Shah Rukh, Salman, Nagarjuna, and Venkatesh joined the club.
In early 2000, Chiranjeevi lost a bit of this luck as his movies didn’t fare as well as before. After an 8-year hiatus, the actor returned with movies like Khaidi No 150, Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy, GodFather, and Waltair Veerayya. Even though the actor is not as much of paramount anymore, he is still respected by the Indian movie industry for his talent and has a huge fanbase. The actor now charges Rs 45 crore per film, which is comparatively less than what the new generation of stars demands.
