In a new interview, entrepreneur Ashneer Grover has criticized Bollywood superstars for charging massive fixed fees that don’t match their films’ performance. He challenged them to “have some guts” and earn money only when their movies are successful.
September 10, 2022: Ashneer Grover, an entrepreneur and previous judge on Shark Tank India, has started another heated controversy, this time by attacking Bollywood’s top stars. Grover recently said in an interview that actors who expect high fixed wages are wrong since their payouts don’t match how well their movies do at the box office.
Grover told Bollywood Bubble that “superstars are overvalued” and should believe in their own star power more. He said, “It’s surprising to me that people say that a superstar took ₹40 crore, another took ₹80 crore, and someone took ₹100 crore, but the movie only made ₹20 crore.”
Grover suggested a form of “equity participation,” in which actors would get a percentage of the film’s profits instead of a set fee. “You should believe in your own popularity and declare, ‘When the movie makes money, I will make money too.’ So I’m astonished that you’re still getting paid even though you’re such enormous celebs. “Have the guts to take equity,” he urged.
Grover has talked about how the Hindi film industry works before. He notably got into a fight with actor Salman Khan on a TV appearance, where Khan accused Grover of being “doglapan” (hypocritical) for lying about their business activities.
No major Bollywood actors have formally replied to Grover’s current comments, but the idea of a profit-sharing approach isn’t new to the industry.
Several A-list stars, such as Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, and Salman Khan, have chosen a hybrid arrangement, where they get a smaller upfront pay in exchange for a large part of a film’s profits. Producers like Siddharth Roy Kapur have welcomed this method, saying it is a “win-win” situation that lowers the cost of making a movie and encourages everyone to work hard to make it a success.