A report stating that Telugu star Prabhas is being paid Rs 150 crores for a film that he has signed with T Series, provoked an angry call from a leading director of Telugu cinema.
He wants to know where these incredible figures come from. “There is no truth to Prabhas getting that kind of money. Not even Tom Cruise can get that much money in today’s days of recession. Prabhas doesn’t command even a fraction of that fee.”
When prodded on why such anger the director said, “Because when you have your publicity machinery put out such ridiculous figures you spoil the whole market. Over here in Andhra Pradesh no producer can afford to pay this kind of money. When you say X gets something so unrealistic, other A-listers get affected And why only Telugu cinema ? Even in Bollywood who can afford to pay 150 crores to the hero alone? That production house(T Series) is also doing a film with Ranbir Kapoor with the same director as Prabhas’s film. Are they going to pay Ranbir less than Prabhas? How much less? How will they justify it to Ranbir?”
An upcoming leading man from Telugu cinema laughed and added, “It’s probably much less than quoted. Prabhas’ Baahubali was record-breaker. But his followup film Saaho didn’t even break even in the Hindi belt. Even Rajinikanth doesn’t have a market in North.”
One hopes such mischievous marketing gimmicks are avoided.