Film stars benefit from premium pay for web originals

Mainstream film stars like Shahid Kapoor, Sidharth Malhotra, Varun Dhawan, and Anushka Sharma who will soon be seen in web originals, will be looking at a 15-20% premium over the remuneration they ordinarily receive for feature film projects. OTT (over-the-top) streaming platforms that are commissioning only a few of these originals headlined by film stars, continue to believe in their draw among audiences. Further, higher pay comes from the fact that actors do not get to own any portion of the IP when it comes to web projects and are also expected to commit a higher number of working hours for 8-10 episode shows.

Actors like Dhawan and Malhotra could be making anything between ₹20-30 crore for movie projects.

“One of the reasons for stars to go on to smaller screens has always been higher pay, even television has traditionally paid more given that the number of programming hours is more,” said Karan Taurani, senior vice-president at Elara Capital Ltd. A film requires two-and-a-half hours of content at most, Taurani pointed out, while the star’s time, spread out over multiple episodes in case of a web show, makes for nearly five to six hours of content. “The difference between films and web projects is that the former is hugely star-dependent and lead actors take up nearly 70-80% of the overall budget and production making up only 20-25% whereas web shows allocate at least 40-45% of overall investments to production standards,” Taurani said.

Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ Hotstar did not respond to Mint’s queries on star fee for web projects.

While final pay may be determined by the number of days required from the star and the number of seasons committed to, streaming platforms continue to realise the presence of stars ensures reach, said Yusuf Shaikh, business head, feature films at production and distribution company Percept Pictures. “All platforms need stars. If you license an actor’s film post its theatrical release, you have no control on creative aspects. It is a better idea to have an actor come on board and for you to own the IP and have your team take all decisions,” Shaikh pointed out.

To be sure, investing in star-led titles has paid off for streaming platforms. Ajay Devgn’s Rudra: The Edge of Darkness on Disney+ Hotstar was the most watched Hindi web show in 2022, with a viewership of 35.2 million, according to media consulting firm Ormax. Akshay Kumar’s Cuttputlli, that streamed directly on Hotstar, was the most watched Hindi film, at 26.9 million. Govinda Naam Mera, a comedy starring Vicky Kaushal, Bhumi Pednekar and Kiara Advani on Hotstar, Gehraiyaan featuring Deepika Padukone, Siddhant Chaturvedi and Ananya Pandey on Amazon Prime Video and Kartik Aaryan-starrer Freddy on Hotstar, also featured among the most watched films with viewership of 24.4 million, 22.3 million and 20.9 million respectively.

Most actors would not be foregoing IP, as is the norm with web projects around the globe, had it not been for premium pricing, film producer, trade and exhibition expert Girish Johar agreed. “Overall budgets obviously differ from show to show but platforms recognise the draw of stars and agree to a premium above theatrical fee,” Johar said adding that such projects would, however, be few and spread out by OTT platforms.