Kartik Aaryan reveals he sacrificed his ‘Shehzada’ acting fee

Kartik Aaryan is the latest star to comment on rising entourage costs in Bollywood, a practice that has burdened the Hindi film industry and forced below-the-line technicians to take pay cuts. He said that an actor’s fee is fixed as per each film’s ‘revenue model’ and things should be fine as long as the ‘mathematics’ of the budget add up.

In an interview with ‘Showsha’, Kartik revealed that he decided to let go of his fee while working on last year’s action comedy ‘Shehzada’, as the film was facing a financial crunch. He was given a producer credit for the Rohit Dhawan directorial, which also starred Kriti Sanon.

“I got a producer credit in the film because I let go of my fee. I did this when no one was talking about these things. Because they were falling short of finances, I let go of my remuneration. No one writes this about stars. It is not just me. A lot of stars do this and a lot bigger things. There is a simple mathematics. From directors and actors to producers, everyone wants their films to work. No one wants to load their films. I don’t think anyone thinks, ‘No, no. I will charge what I want to, film jaaye bhaad mein (the film be damned)’,” he said.

‘Shehzada’ producer Bhushan Kumar had also previously praised Kartik Aaryan and said the actor ‘stood’ by the team during the ‘turbulent times’ as he dropped his fee.

In a recent interview with a top news agency, Kartik detailed the ‘math’ of film production and distribution. “So, you get an ‘x’ amount of money out of it. If your star value and the entire project’s value give profit to the entire team, I think then the math adds up. If it doesn’t, then you have to, you should take a cut. It’s a healthy discussion. My whole thing is that mathematics has to add up,” he added.