Two years ago, when the Active Producers Guild announced a strike demanding the reduction of production costs of films, the remunerations paid to male leads in Tollywood became a hot topic. At that time, three senior producers defended star heroes, especially those known to charge upwards of Rs 20 Cr. Y Ravi Shankar of Mythri Movie Makers, Dil Raju of Sri Venkateswara Creations and S Naga Vamsi said that Tollywood heroes know how much they deserve. Dil Raju stated that everything is a matter of demand and supply. "There have been instances where certain heroes have come to the rescue of producers on the day of their films' release in case of a flop. Those things are not known to the world. They are internal matters," Raju said. Naga Vamsi spoke of an instance where a hero, who had a flop in 2023, was ready to reduce his remuneration. There is no question of the heroes being adamant, he suggested. Y Ravi Shankar said that a project's viability doesn't depend only on the fees of the hero and director. It depends on the sets costing several crores, foreign locations required, etc.
Two years later, however, the narrative is back to viewing heroes' remunerations as a big hindrance. Heroes are being told to slash their fat paychecks. A major reason is that non-theatrical revenue streams have become weaker than ever before. To make matters worse for Tollywood, theatres are witnessing dwindling footfalls, with many movies incurring huge losses.
Speaking at an event on Friday, producer SKN commented that the new reality is yet to be appreciated by heroes. "The remuneration of artists remains as before," he said, hinting that they need to slash their fees.
