‘OTT platforms barged in and gave Rs 120 crore for Rajinikanth and Vijay’s films’: Vetrimaaran calls for reduction of star salaries

Filmmaker Vetrimaaran blamed streaming platforms for disrupting the order of business, by paying exorbitant amounts for projects headlined by major stars.

By: Entertainment Desk

New Delhi | Updated: September 24, 2024 04:25 PM IST

3 min read

Rajinikanth and Vijay are two of the biggest stars in the Tamil industry.

The theatrical market has seen tectonic shifts in the post-pandemic era, with major stars escalating fees despite uncertainty around what kind of films have a greater chance of clicking with the audience. While Karan Johar has stopped entertaining exorbitant star demands, filmmaker Vetrimaaran blamed streaming platforms for causing an imbalance in the industry by paying huge amounts for the rights of certain films. In a roundtable interview hosted by The Hollywood Reporter India, Vetrimaaran said that platforms pay over Rs 100 crore on occasions to secure the streaming rights to the films of major movie stars, which empowers them to inflate their remuneration.

He said, “It is not the theatrical box office that is failing, it is the inflation created by the OTT platforms that is failing. See, they barged in during pandemic times and said, ‘We’ll pay Rs 120 crore for Rajinikanth and Vijay’s films, you make it’. Then, the budgets became bigger, the salaries became bigger. Within a few months, they realised that it is not sustainable. Now, they’re saying, ‘We can’t give that much’. But producers have gotten used to making bigger films, and actors have gotten used to taking bigger salaries. What to do now?”

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Vetrimaaran praised director Mari Selvaraj for successfully proving that the theatrical market isn’t broken, by releasing his small-budget film Vaazhai and earning twice its budget back through the theatrical avenue alone. “The film’s lifetime number just in Tamil Nadu is going to be twice the budget. Box office is there, but we need to realign ourselves… We need to directly address the theatrical audience, like we used to, and not the OTT audience.” He also accused streaming platforms of self-censorship. “They don’t want to show people eating beef, they say this community will get offended, that religion will be offended. They used to be paymasters, so their demands were also more. I might as well stay back,” he said, predicting a revival of the theatrical business.

A similar trend was observed in Hollywood, but the industry has already begun to rectify it. Streaming platforms would secure the services of major movie stars and filmmakers by paying them not only their quoted price, but also including the figures that they would have made through backend deals in their upfront salaries. One of the reasons why Netflix has become more transparent about their viewership, it is said, is because they want to make it clear to certain talent how their project stacks up against others’. That being said, it was reported that Brad Pitt and George Clooney made $35 million each on their upcoming Apple TV+ movie Wolfs.

In a past interview, Vetrimaaran admitted to having overshot the budget of his film Viduthalai by Rs 60 crore. Four years after he began production on the project, which began as a small Rs 4.5 crore film, he still hasn’t finished it, despite having separated it into two unwieldy instalments. Rajinikanth last starred in the blockbuster Jailer, while Vijay most recently delivered the under-performer GOAT.

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