Zoya Akhtar tells Karan Johar ‘you have to just stop paying’ high fees to male stars

High remuneration of leading male actors in the Hindi film industry has been a recent concern, especially after films headlined by A-list stars like Akshay Kumar and Ajay Devgn have recorded openings as low as ?3 crore and ?4 crore. In a directors 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.

“They are not going to know. But Karan, you have to just stop paying. You have to stop paying. That's it,” Zoya said. To which, Karan responded that he's stopped paying high fees to male stars now.

“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.

Karan added that there are only 6 male actors when it comes to viability, and over 200 films to make in a year, so producers have to recut the pie to empower new, younger actors. Zoya also argued that the technical crew should be paid handsomely since the male star takes away 70% of the budget currently. Karan said that some younger male stars want to charge ?40 crore yet not take risks in terms of their acting choices.