DYK Priyanka Chopra, Kareena Kapoor 'Slashed' Their Fees For Fashion, Heroine?

Madhur Bhandarkar in a recent interview addressed the ongoing debate about high entourage costs. The director who has given several hit National Film Award-winning movies shared that female actors who played the lead roles in his movies reduced their fees.

Every female actor slashed her price: Madhur Bhandarkar

In an interview with Bollywood Hungama, Madhur was asked if he faced any issues related to entourage costs or rising star fees. To this, he replied actresses "slashed their price" when they were working with him. He further mentioned that when he was shooting for Chandni Bar, he only had a budget of ₹1.5 crore owing to which Tabu didn't charge any fee for the movie. "She took money against Bombay or Delhi territory, and nothing else apart from that," he said.

Similarly, Raveena Tandon for Satta and Bipasha Basu for Corporate reduced their fee. Not just them, even Priyanka Chopra, who was a lead actress in Fashion and Kareena Kapoor (Heroine) slashed their fees. "They didn’t charge the market price from me because they were keen on making these movies. The entire film was resting on their shoulders so everybody slashed their prices," he added.

For the unversed, Chandni Bar (2001), won him the National Film Award for Best Film on Social Issues. Priyanka won the National Film Award for Best Actress and Kangana Ranaut for Best Supporting Actress. In 2016, Madhur was honoured with India's fourth-highest civilian award, the Padma Shri.

Madhur Bhandarkar opens up on the plot of Fashion 2

In an interview with Bollywood Hungama, Madhur shared his desire to create a movie or a sequel exploring the present conditions of the modelling and fashion industry. Through his movie, he wants to shed light on the diminishing prominence of supermodels in the age of social media where celebs are taking centre stage at fashion shows as showstoppers and influencers taking the place of models on runaways.

“I feel Fashion has all the potential for a sequel. Today, the world of fashion has changed. As a filmmaker, I feel I have a lot of material and hence, it can be turned into a show, spanning a couple of seasons. But it also is apt for a film. Hence, nothing has been decided yet. The subject, however, is interesting," he said.

Fashion revolves around Meghna Mathur (played by Priyanka), an aspiring fashion model; it follows her transformation from small-town girl to supermodel, the Indian fashion industry and the careers of several other models. The movie also explores feminism and female power in Indian fashion.