Karan Johar reveals he has stopped paying high fees to male stars

Karan Johar

The high fees charged by male actors, especially of Hindi cinema have been a point of discussion lately. The discussions came up after the top male stars failed to deliver at the box office in recent times despite taking home fat cheques. In a director's roundtable conducted by The Hollywood Reporter India, Karan Johar reiterated the need for male stars to reassess their remuneration, before his fellow filmmaker Zoya Akhtar intervened. The roundtable also saw Mahesh Narayan, Vetri Maaran and Pa Ranjith in attendance.

Zoya Akhtar tells Karan Johar to not pay high fees to male stars

Zoya interrupted Karan as he spoke about the rising cost of male actors' fees and said, "They are not going to know. But Karan, you have to just stop paying. You have to stop paying. That's it".

To which, Karan who is also the head of Dharma Productions responded that he's stopped paying high fees to male stars now.

Responding to Zoya, Karan said, "What is your last couple of films? How much have you opened to? With what right are you asking me for this number? I made a small film called Kill. I put the money in it because it was a high-concept film with a rank newcomer as the face of it. Because I've started doing it. It was a high-concept action film. You could not make Kill in any other way. It had to be in that train. Every star asked me for the same money that the budget was for. I was like, ‘How can I pay you? When the budget is ₹40 crore, you're asking for ₹40 crore? Are you guaranteeing the film will do ₹120 crore? There's no guarantee, right? So finally, I took a new boy, and he was an ‘outsider,' I have to say it," Karan said.

'Kill' was made on a relatively small budget of Rs 40 crore an backed by Guneet Monga and Karan Johar. The film was directed by Nikhil Nagesh Bhat and had a relatively newer face in Lakshya as the lead. The film also starred Raghav Juyal in a pivotal role.

Karan Johar stresses on better division of budget

During the roundtable, Karan stressed that only six male actors are there in the industry when it comes to viability. There ae over 200 films to be made in a year in Hindi and so the producers should 'recut the pie to empower new actors', he said. Karan said that some younger male stars want to charge Rs 40 crore yet not take risks in terms of their acting choices.

Zoya added that male stars take away 70 percent of the film's budget and that it is time that the technical crew should be paid handsomely.