Have you ever wondered why the majority of Telugu big films lately have massive ticket prices? Do you believe it’s solely because of the grandeur and sheer scale of these projects? Does it feel highly disappointing when those films aren’t worth your hard-earned money?
If you believe lavish presentation and massive scale alone justify those exorbitant prices, then you are absolutely wrong.
The Uncomfortable Truth:
On social media, fans of top heroes are often chest-thumping and arguing with admirers of rival stars, claiming that their favorite actor receives the highest remuneration in the industry. They proudly say their hero is being paid a massive amount, Rs. 130 crores, and more, because of his huge box-office pull.
It’s true that producers pay heroes more than other actors and crew because of their crowd-pulling capacity, and there’s no denying that. Their craze translates into ticket sales, which is why producers give them top priority and treat them like kings.
However, in recent times, remunerations have crossed reasonable limits. Fans who flaunt these figures during fan wars have little to no idea that these hefty paychecks are the main reason ticket prices are being increased enormously. Let’s understand this by an example.
This star hero and star director delivered a mammoth blockbuster in their first collaboration, earning huge applause from all corners. Now, they are reuniting for another film, and shockingly, the hero and director have quoted Rs. 140 crores and Rs. 100 crores as their remunerations, respectively. The project is yet to go on floors, but the budget has already neared Rs. 250 crores, highlighting why the industry is facing such challenging times.
This significantly increases the burden on the producer, who has to pay interest to financiers, and by the time the film hits theatres, the overall cost becomes even higher.
Since the budgets are going several notches higher than what was initially planned, the producer will have no option but to sell the film at higher rates to distributors across all regions for recovery. The only way distributors can get back their investments is by setting ticket prices at levels that become highly onerous for audiences. As a result, producers opt for massive ticket price hikes.
Ultimately, the burden is passed on to moviegoers. It’s an indirect way of producers saying to fans, “Look, we invested heavily in this film and paid massive bucks to your hero. Now it’s your duty to give it back and make your hero proud.” Ironically, the very fans who flaunted these remunerations during fan wars are the ones who now have to bear this burden to ensure their hero doesn’t get trolled.
Even if a film is good, the massive costs involved leave no guarantee of a successful run. There have been multiple films with good content that still ended up incurring losses due to high pricing, and when you trace the root cause, it often leads back to inflated remuneration.
The Road Ahead:
If top heroes truly care about their fans and the stakeholders involved in their films, they must start slashing their remuneration. In the past, some heroes opted for profit-sharing models or took revenue from specific regions instead of charging a fixed remuneration, which helped reduce the burden on producers.
If heroes return to this model, more money can be invested in the actual production, making the final product look even better. It’s not only the heroes, but producers are also equally at fault for not saying no to fat paychecks. They must stop pampering stars and take a firm stand against unreasonable salary demands so that a correction can happen and things return to normal. If this happens, it will be a win-win situation for everyone.
