Subhash Ghai, the filmmaker behind Khalnayak, Hero, Pardes and Taal, has put a figure on the distance between two eras of Hindi cinema. In an interview with SCREEN published on 16 October, he said the stars he directed in the 1980s and 1990s often accepted 40 per cent of their fee because the story and character mattered more than the price.
That number is the clearest way to understand the change Ghai is describing. It is not a small discount; it is a different model of deciding what a film and a performance are worth.
A 40 per cent fee, for the role
Ghai puts the shift bluntly. “Commerce has taken over… it’s less about the art,” he said. In his account, actors of his generation wanted to be artistes and trusted that money would follow. They signed for the director, the story and the character, not for the best possible quote.
“Most of the stars in my movies have taken only 40 per cent of the price,” Ghai recalled, “because they were interested in the character and the story.”
- Signing criteria: actors once led with director, story and character; today, managers and PR teams negotiate the persona.
- Income sources: films are no longer the only revenue stream, which changes actors’ leverage.
- Longevity: the attention cycle is short, with the craze fading in three to four years before a new face arrives.
Why the shift matters
This is not a nostalgia argument about any single actor. If a star’s market rate rather than the script determines casting, projects get assembled around fees and opening weekends instead of roles. The casting conversation moves from “who is right for this part” to “how much does the package cost.”
Ghai’s point about the machinery around a star—multiple managers and PRs—is a warning about that packaging. He argues that fame built this way is seasonal: it rises, burns for three or four years, and then is replaced.
For readers who follow Hindi cinema closely, the test is visible every release: does the announcement lead with the actor’s price or with the part? When the salary becomes the headline, the film is often being sold as a package before it has a story.
Salman Khan’s parallel, and a sequel test
A similar note came from Salman Khan on Koffee with Karan season 9. Host Karan Johar observed that 2026 still saw successes built around Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgn, Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan. Salman’s response was simpler: his generation is interested in the work. “Sometimes, it turns out right, sometimes it does not,” he said. He also stressed that the films they make are ones “every Hindustani would be comfortable to see with the whole family.”
Ghai will now be supporting the sequel of the Sanjay Dutt-starrer Khalnayak. Revisiting that title may be the practical test of whether the craft-first model he remembers still has an audience.
Source: The Times of India
Comments