Exorbitant salaries of Tamil film actors has often been a bone of contention among movie producers and one too many times, voices from Kollywood aka the Tamil film industry have spoken out criticizing the same. Top heroes like Ajith, Vijay, Rajinikanth among others have come under scanner for charging upto Rs. 100 Cr. and above for a single movie, and recently senior producer, distributor K Rajan, known for his controversial hot-takes sparked a debate regarding the same.
It is worth prefacing that K Rajan is also known for contradicting his own statements regarding the failure and success of a film and he often adds a disclaimer to his statements saying, "this is what I heard". So while there is no clarity on whether or not these are confirmed numbers, K Rajan recently said in an interview that since Rajinikanth famously charged Rs. 100 Cr. for Darbar, actor Vijay too is charging upto Rs. 100 Cr. and above per movie.
He said that Vijay's remuneration for Thalapathy 66 is Rs. 120 Cr. whereas for Beast, he was paid Rs. 85 Cr. + taxes by Sun Pictures.However controversy arose when the senior producer and former head of Tamil Nadu Distributors' Association said that while it is wrong even for Vijay to charge that much, he can accept it considering Vijay has given back-to-back hits (K Rajan had previously stated in some interviews that two of Vijay's last three films - Bigil and Beast faced heavy losses).
But for Ajith who has given three back-to-back failures (again K Rajan once again changed his stance about the performance of Nerkonda Paarvai) to do the same came across as an unconscious act, he added. He expressed his disappointment over Ajith increasing his salary by Rs. 40 Cr. and charging Rs. 105 for Ajith 62, which is bankrolled by Lyca Productions.
K Rajan also said that producer Boney Kapoor came to South to make movies to rid of his existing debts but instead incurred more debts after making two movies with Ajith. He said that Ajith should have consciously reduced his then existing salary by Rs. 25 Cr. instead he now only talks to producers if they guarantee him a minimum of Rs. 95 Cr. remuneration.