Imran Khan recently dropped a bombshell on actors and their increasing demands in pay.
Khan, who made a comeback in Bollywood after a decade via Patel: Khatarnak Jasoos, spoke about how rising salaries of Bollywood actors are impacting their film budgets.
In a conversation with ETimes, the 42-year-old actor said, “I believe that increasingly we have reached a place where stars exploit the system.”
The Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na star went on to express his concerns, “I don’t mean that they are opening their wallet and putting money into the film,” said Khan, adding, “But there’s a sense of taking personal responsibility and ownership of the film.”
According to him, such hiked salaries could balloon production costs and reduce a film’s profitability.
“If I have a sense that my film is going to cost 30 crores to make, that’s your cost of production,” said Khan, adding, “And I say I will charge 40 crores. So now your film costs 70 crores—Rs 30 crore of which is the actual film and Rs 40 crore is my personal salary.”
He further explained, “What is now our route to profitability? And do I care about that? I should care about it. It’s my film.”
The Delhi Belly actor said that he believes that there is the potential for this film to be a decent film, take less money up front and roll the dice.
In the end, he noted that for a such movie that has potential, one should take a gamble and bet that the film will do well and if anyone can afford to do that, it’s the star.
On professional front, Imran Khan will star alongside Bhumi Pednekar in an upcoming untitled film.
