Deepika charging Rs 30 Cr is a publicity gimmick?

Deepika Padukone signing Prabhas’s 21st film, a sci-fi drama, was the top headline yesterday in all the media outlets globally. Although fans and Telugu websites have been speculating her name for the past one month, the official announcement from the makers gave huge publicity to the film. 

Now, everyone is speculating her remuneration.

Deepika Padukone charges Rs 15 crore in Bollywood. She charged Rs 12 crore for Bhansali’s ‘Padmaavat’, which was a huge blockbuster and increased her remuneration to Rs 15 crore for ‘Chhapaak’ that tanked at the box-office.

When she takes home payment of Rs 15 crore for her Bollywood movie, why would she get Rs 30 crore to Prabhas’s Telugu film (though it will be released in Tamil, Hindi and Malayalam languages as well)? At a time when all producers are asking the stars to slash the remunerations by 30 to 50 percent due to economic recession and the corona crisis, would any sane producer double the remuneration of the actress?

The Rs 30 crore paycheck seems to be just a publicity gimmick.

It has become a fashion for Telugu filmmakers to boast the budgets in the bracket of Rs 200 and 300 crores when the actual spend is half the amount. 

Deepika Padukone charging Rs 30 crore is nothing but a hype.