Tamil Actor Salary (article 1 of 2) 

Kumudam Reporter published the actor's salaries in their latest publication. The actor salary data from our internal sources is more or less aligned with the published market rates for most of these actors. Here are the details explaining the story behind these numbers,

Tier 1 Actors (20 Crores +)

Rajinikanth is reportedly signed up by Eros to act in Kochadaiyaan & soon-to-be-announced untitled project for more than 28 Crores. They have paid a hefty advance amount to Rajni for Rana which they are carrying it over to the new projects.

Kamal Haasan's market price is the most difficult to estimate because of the first copy basis agreements and multiple roles he performs. The pressure to keep the salary in a higher bracket has resulted in compromising on the production value of his recent movies such as Manmadhan Ambu and Unnaipol Oruvan. 

Tier 2 Actors (10 Crores to 20 Crores) 

Suriya  has been leading in this bracket with roughly 20 Crores. For Maattrraan, he took whopping Rs. 25 Crores because of combination of one-time factors. But, it is safe to estimate his salary to be 20 Crores including 10 Crores for Telugu rights. 

Ajith is known in the industry for turning down scripts and directors due to his approach of signing the producers ahead of directors. Following Mankatha's success, Ajith has almost doubled the salary from 10 Crores to 19 Crores. 

Vijay reached this salary bracket almost 4 years ago. Due to his recent change in strategy to work with good directors and technicians, he is getting pressure to keep his salary lower. This strategy had previously worked out big time for Suriya. Since Vijay doesn't have an established market in Telugu, the salary is solely for Tamil. 

Vikram has been going through a rough patch ever since the success of Anniyan. All his movies in the last 5 years until Rajapattai (with the exception of Deivathirumagal) have all struggled at the Box Office. Around 3 Crores of his 10 Crores salary is attributed to his market in Telugu.

Tier 3 Actors (5 Crores to 10 Crores)  

Dhanush is the the leader in this bracket and the salary is difficult to quantify because of his phenomenal success with Kolaveri. If 3 gets released in Hindi and gets good reception, Dhanush will break out into the next orbit. Before Kolaveri, his salary was 7 Crores.

Simbu is the next in the list with 6 to 7 Crores. Both Simbu and Dhanush have always kept in par during the entire span of their careers. Since Osthe's failure came as a shocking blow, he may be left behind by his rival friend. The plan is to reclaim some bragging rights by getting international recognition through Love Anthem. This could be Simbu's ticket to stay in par. 

Karthi who has been carefully playing his cards in building both Telugu and Tamil markets is now making more than 7 Crores as a result. More than 40% of his compensation come from dubbing rights for his Telugu market.

Tier 4 Actors (1 Crore to 5 Crores)

Jiiva has the most promising line-up of movies and expected to scale to the next level by the end of 2012. With his recent success of Ko in Tamil & Telugu and appreciation coming his way for Nanban, Jiiva's stars are burning the brightest.

Arya who had a spectacular hit in BOSS and Madarasapattinam last year is now being appreciated for his work in Vettai. He is waiting for the right project to establish himself in a solo hero role.

Jayam Ravi has invested a lot of time and effort in Aadhi Baghavan. Jayam Ravi is relying on this movie to give him the much needed break after a series of failures faced during the last couple of years.

Vishal who was following Vijay's foot steps is now struggling and has been fighting for that elusive hit. His pipeline has almost dried out and now working on building his career from scratch. Good news is that he has a crutch in the form of Telugu market.