Kartik Aaryan is gearing up for the release of Chandu Champion. The sports drama film is directed by Kabir Khan. The film is scheduled to release on June 14 and will mark the first collaboration of the actor-director duo. Ahead of the film’s release, the leading man Kartik Aaryan and the filmmaker spoke about the rising entourage cost in the industry.  

Kartik Aaryan says the debate on entourage cost is a ‘healthy discussion’ 

With back-to-back poor performances of big movies, there is a lot of chatter in Hindi cinema around the remuneration taken by some of the big stars whose entourage also costs money to producers. In an interview with PTI, Kartik Aryan, said a film’s mathematics should add up at the end of the day. 

He said, “There are so many rights of a film when it releases. So you get an ‘x’ amount of money out of it. If your star value and the entire project’s value gives profit to the entire team, I think then the math adds up. If it doesn’t, then you have to, you should take a cut… It’s a healthy discussion.”

Kabir Khan says the industry has to come together to reach to a conclusion

In the same interview, Kabir Khan, whose last film was 2021’s multi-starrer sports drama 83, said people from the industry need to be on the same page to decide how costs can be controlled by not compromising on the quality of the film. He said, “Nobody wants to cut down the money that’s being spent on things you see on screen. So, the question comes about the money that comes through the staff fees, which, of course, is a large amount of the budget. Even stars and actors are now stepping forward and saying, ‘If this is the film you’re making, this is the money that’s needed to mount it on this scale, obviously we will take a cut in our fees’.

He added, “No one wants to say ‘Give me my money even if we make a smaller film’. At the end of the day, it’s going to reflect on the staff. That is a healthy discussion that’s happening and I think from every quarter of the industry there’s consensus that we all have to come together so that the business is able to continue. You can’t start making money in the short term and kill the business.”
(With inputs from PTI)