The Bollywood industry is currently facing a significant challenge, where crores in fees and declining profits have become a cause for concern for the sector. On the other hand, expenses on film promotions are continuously increasing.
Production Costs And Star Fees: It has been difficult to estimate the box office earnings of a film in Bollywood, as many times a film that was expected to do well has flopped. The COVID-19 pandemic, which began on March 22, 2020, has further exacerbated these challenges. However, filmmakers now say that the reason for today's losses is less about creative failures and more about the excessive expenses of top artists.
Producer Ramesh Taurani, famous for several action franchises, directly states, "It's not so much about production costs as it is about star fees, and we incur significant losses paying for them."
Furthermore, filmmakers claim that actors today bring a entourage of dozens of people to the set, including makeup artists, hairdressers, stylists, gym trainers, and numerous assistants. The production company ultimately has to bear the cost of all of them. In addition to this, stars and their support staff are paid hefty fees of up to $22.18 million (approximately ₹180 crore) for each film. On top of these fees, demands for first-class travel, stays in five-star hotels, multiple private trailers, and shorter working hours have become commonplace.
Senior producer Mukesh Bhatt expressed his views, stating, "A large support team, premium travel, and luxury accommodation always inflate the budget without any creative impact. The demands made by stars are very high."
Distributor and trade analyst Raj Bansal commented, "An actor comes with 10 to 15 staff members. Earlier, actors didn't mind sharing a vanity van. Then they decided to give each big star a separate vanity van, and the demands kept increasing." The cost of renting a trailer for a film shoot can be around ₹15 lakh, and for some actors in the industry, demanding more has become a 'status symbol'.
Bollywood has always been considered a high-risk industry, where more films flop than hit. However, producers say that star-driven costs exceeding box office returns have disrupted the industry's balance. This fragile model further faltered after the pandemic when streaming platforms bought films at high prices. But when those deals ended, producers faced a difficult period as income decreased while actors' demands remained, a problem that persists today.
Actor-filmmaker Aamir Khan has also previously commented on stars burdening producers with these expenses. In an interview on the YouTube show Game Changers in September, Aamir said, "You earn in crores. Where is your self-respect?" Industry insiders suggest that actors' demands also lead to stars trying to outdo each other's perks.
To address these issues, producers have advocated for partnership-style compensation models. Mukesh Bhatt stated, "When a film succeeds, every contributor should benefit. When it struggles, the burden shouldn't fall solely on the producer, who takes the risk from the outset." The 2024 science fiction action film 'Bade Miyan Chote Miyan', starring Akshay Kumar and Tiger Shroff, was reportedly made at a cost of approximately $42 million. Following poor ticket sales, there were reports of producers having to mortgage their properties to repay debts.
It is worth noting that many of these claims have been disproven. For instance, actor Kartik Aaryan waived his fee for the 2023 action-comedy 'Shehzada', which performed poorly at the box office. Aaryan said, "If your star value and the value of the entire project benefit the whole team, then I think that's the right thing to do." Some producers argue that the industry should confront its excesses and have called for cost reductions.