Profit-sharing in Bollywood: What happens when actresses start talking business
The financial responsibility of a film does not rest with the producer alone.
For a long time, the men in Bollywood have been walking home not only with all the accolades for their films, but also with huge amounts of money — more than their usual fee per film.
We were told that Shahid Kapoor did not charge a penny for his film Haider (2014), or Akshay Kumar charged nothing for Airlift (2016). Ranveer Singh too didn’t charge anything for Bajirao Mastani (2018).
So, what explains such generosity? Of course, misleading reports glossing over the fact that they all entered into a profit-sharing pact with the producers, in which they got a certain percentage of the profit that those films made.
The Khans, especially Aamir Khan, and Akshay Kumar have now made the gamble of profit-sharing a new normal in Bollywood economy, while there are similar attempts from their counterparts to strike such deals.
We can only hope that this may reduce the gender pay gap the industry suffers.
But there are a number of ifs and buts.
What is a profit-sharing deal?
Here, the financial responsibility of a film does not rest upon the producer alone.
The actor, too, shares the responsibility by either compromising on his/her regular fee or charging nothing for the film. But he or she will take home a mutually agreed upon percentage of the profit. The model varies from actor to actor.
Aamir Khan has claimed to have charged nothing as his remuneration as he always becomes a profit-sharing partner of any film he chooses to do. Once the film’s cost is recovered, he claims his profit share. That share can go up to 80 per cent.
For example, Salman Khan generally charges Rs 70 crore as remuneration. But for Sultan, he chose to have a share in the profits, and may have taken home Rs 110 crore-Rs 150 crore from the film, which made around Rs 600 crore.
Not everyone goes by this formula. Many actors only agree to reduce their fee. This is more profitable for them, because if the film flops, they will not be hit hard.
Who can call the shots?
Surely, not everyone.
No producer will agree to share his profit with a newcomer. On the other hand, some actors even get the satellite rights of their movies.
It is only after the actors become brands and the producers can bank on that brand to pull crowd to theatres that they agree to share profit.
The practice is not new.
It dates back to the time of Amitabh Bachchan, who used to claim collections from specific regions as his payment.
Where are our actresses standing?
According to various reports, Priyanka Chopra, who was in news for refusing Salman Khan-starrer Bharat, will be the first actress to share profit of her next Bollywood project The Sky is Pink.
But there are contradictory reports, as the production house has dismissed this as a rumour.
Long before Priyanka, it was rumoured that Aishwarya claimed profit share for her movie Jazba back in 2015, while Deepika Padukone asked for a share in Finding Fanny (2014).
Kangana Ranaut reportedly claimed profit share for her next release Manikarnika. Alia Bhatt might have got some profit share from Raazi.
Interestingly, all these films revolve around women characters which explains why the actresses could have even placed their demands.
This brings us to the inherent dichotomy of the industry.
While for the male actors these are amounts to flaunt, for female actors the veracity of such incidents are yet to be confirmed.
Only Taapsee Pannu admitted to have claimed a share of the profit of a Telugu film Anando Brahma. It was a low-budget film and Taapsee, after Pink and Naam Shabana, was a big name in southern industry.
It is quite obvious that a producer can strike such a deal with one actor at a time.
So, what happens when there are two big names and the actress demands profit share?
Exactly what happened in Padmaavat.
Instead of Ranveer, it was Deepika Padukone, who demanded a profit share. She was denied and was instead given a higher remuneration than both the men in the film, creating much hope that Bollywood has come a long way to bridge gender pay gap.