₹4.35 crore per minute: How a cameo made this star India's highest-paid actor; he beat Shah Rukh, Salman Khan, Prabhas
It was in the 90s that Chiranjeevi became the first Indian actor to charge ₹1 crore for a film. It soon became the benchmark to measure top stars, with the three Khans and Akshay Kumar soon joining the ranks, along with Sridevi and Madhuri Dixit. But over time, the ₹1-crore sum became small, with even supporting actors charging that. Soon, it became ₹10 crore and eventually ₹100 crore. In the midst of it all, in 2019, an actor charged a staggering ₹4.35 crore per minute for a role, reshaping the economics of film casting. (Also read: India's highest-paid actress earns ₹30 crore per film, has no release in 6 years, yet beat Deepika, Alia Bhatt, Kareena)
In 2017, after the stupendous success of Baahubali 2, SS Rajamouli announced his next project with Jr NTR and Ram Charan. The film was eventually titled RRR, with more cast members joining over the next few months. Early in 2019, Bollywood star Ajay Devgn signed on for a cameo, alongside Alia Bhatt and Shriya Saran, who joined later. Ajay Devgn was only on screen in RRR for 8 minutes, but he charged ₹35 crore for his appearance, the most expensive cameo in Indian cinema history. The ₹4.35 crore per minute fees were the highest per diem charged by any actor in India at the time.
To put it into perspective, Shah Rukh Khan would have to charge ₹300 crore for Jawan (more than the film's budget) for his 70-minute screen time in the film. Going by the ₹4.35 crore per minute rate, Rajinikanth for Jailer, Salman Khan for Tiger 3, Prabhas for Kalki 2898 AD, and Allu Arjun for Pushpa 2 would all have to charge ₹250-300 crore, much higher than what they eventually did. This cameo made Ajay the highest-paid actor in India, at least by this metric.
Ajay eventually did become the highest-paid OTT star in the country when he signed Hotstar's Rudra: The Edge of Darkness for ₹125 crore in 2021.
Ajay Devgn has tasted box office success post-pandemic multiple times, with the success of films like Drishyam 2, Raid 2, and Singham Again. The actor reportedly varies his fees depending on the project, lowering it to ₹20 crore for small-budget films like Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha and Raid 2, but also elevating it to over ₹40 crore for bigger titles like Singham Again.
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