Highest-paid Tamil Music Directors of 2016
The competition among Tamil music directors has intensified, while their remunerations are under tremendous pressure. Due to steady decline in audio market, music directors' salaries have witnessed a lot of pressure. The audio rights have fallen off the cliff. Music labels are also extracting more in the form of rights for audio rights. Movie directors are requesting for only 3 to 4 songs to keep the narration tight. There are a number of newcomers who have done well recently. As a result, a number of music directors, including Anirudh, Imman, Thaman have a busy schedule in 2016 due to world tours and stage shows. GV Prakash and Vijay Antony have switched their primary focus to acting.
1. AR Rahman - Rs 3 to 4 Crore
AR Rahman is still the most sought after music director for big budget Tamil movies. AR Rahman has Shankar and Rajini's 2.0 and a Gautham Menon's movies. AR Rahman is now charging Rs 3 Crore to 4 Crore, which is almost a 30% decline in salary from his peak.
2. Harris Jayaraj - Rs 2 Crore
Harris Jayaraj continues to be selective with 3 movies lined up for 2016 -- Singam-3 (S3), Iru Mugan and AR Murugadoss' bilingual movie with Mahesh Babu. Harris is one of the 2 music directors charging north of Rs. 2 Crore, despite a 20% reduction.
3. Anirudh - Rs 1.75 Crore
Anirudh has been consistently occupying the top positions in charts, of late. Anirudh has 3 movies (Sivakarthikeyan's Remo, Vignesh Sivan's next and Ajith's next) and a very busy world tour year ahead. Anirudh is keeping his salary at Rs 1.75 Crore.
4. Santhosh Narayanan - Rs 1.5 Crore
Santhosh Narayanan has seen a meteoric rise ever since the announcement of Rajinikanth's Kabali. Santhosh is composing for Karthik Subbaraj's Iraivi, Vijay's 60th movie, Selvaraghavan's Nenjam Marapathillai, Dhanush's Kodi, Karthi's Kashmora. Udhayanidhi's Stalin's Manithan album just got released today. 2016 will be the make or break year for Santhosh, who is now charging around Rs 1.5 Crore.
5. Imman - Rs 75 lakh
Imman is the busiest music director of 2016 with a mix of handful of expected movies (Dhanush's Thodari, Vishal's Marudhu) and a longer list of low-end commercial movies. Imman is the top favourite among B and C centers with Rajini Murugan doing exceptionally well. Imman's remuneration is around Rs 75 lakh.