Not long ago, the figure Rs 100 crore was enough to describe the box office collections of a hit film, even a superhit film. We may have been spoilt by the recent Rs 1000-crore juggernauts but the 100-crore club is quite recent. But it shows how quickly the Indian film industry has progressed that the journey from a film making Rs 100 crore to an actor charging that amount took less than a decade.
The first Indian actor to charge Rs 100 crore for a film
The year was 2016 and Salman Khan was riding high on the success of his previous films. In the 90s, he had been one of the three young stars – alongside Shah Rukh and Aamir Khan. But after 2003, his stardom dimmed as box office returns grew thinner. Salman eventually returned to form in 2009 with Wanted and started a splendid second innings the following year with Dabangg. By 2016, he was comfortably the highest-paid actor in the country. It was for the wrestling drama Sultan that Salman charged a fees of over Rs 100 crore, the first time an Indian actor had done that.
How Salman established this new 100-crore club
The reason Salman was able to increase his beyond the Rs 100-crore mark was because he lowered his upfront fees and began to enter into a profit-sharing agreement with the producers. As per reports, Salman took 60-70% share in the profits of both Sultan and Tiger Zinda Hai, his 2016-17 blockbusters. Since both these films did exceedingly well at the box office, the superstar earned over Rs 100 crore for each film.
India’s highest-paid actors
Salman was soon joined in the list by Aamir Khan for Dangal, followed by Shah Rukh Khan for Zero. After the pandemic, other stars like Akshay Kumar, Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, Thalapathy Vijay, Prabhas, and Ajith Kumar also joined the list of India’s highest-paid actors.
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