Bollywood's top heroines are acting pricey

It doesn’t matter if there are clouds of recession looming large over Bollywood. If filmmakers are to be believed, then it hasn’t had an effect on heroines in the industry.

Leading filmmakers, who are casting for their films right now, have confirmed that several top heroines have upped their prices to almost double the amount that they used to charge a year back.

If sources are to be believed, then the asking rate of newbies such as Sonakshi Sinha and Anushka Sharma is between one and two crore per film.

“We could rope in Katrina for two and a half crore till last year. Now the same amount won’t fetch you a heroine who’s just two-three-films-old. There needs to be some serious correction when it comes to actors’ salaries now,” says a leading filmmaker.

So, what is the rate card of leading ladies like Katrina Kaif, Kareena Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan and Priyanka Chopra? Well, filmmakers say they are not talking if it’s less than Rs5 crore.

“Kareena has been offered a humongous sum to do Madhur Bhandarkar’s Heroine but Katrina and Priyanka aren’t charging any less either. Kareena and Aishwarya seem to be on top of the ladder when it comes to acting fees. Katrina and Priyanka follow closely,” another deputy to a top studio owner adds, who has just signed Katrina for a film.

So, where does it leave the rest of the heroines like Sonam Kapoor, Asin, Deepika Padukone and the likes of those who don’t fall into the above two brackets? Well, the fees of this bracket is negotiable.

“Their fees are thankfully negotiable. Most of these actresses are not so hung up on their prices because their primary goal is to sign movies. Interestingly, it is this bracket which has the least number of good movies in their kitty,” one of the filmmaker adds.

And what about actresses like Preity Zinta, Ameesha Patel, Lara Dutta, Sushmita Sen?

“Most of them have one or maximum two good projects in the pipeline and they are concentrating on their production house. So there’s no price. It’s pay-me-as-you-please,” adds a filmmaker.

Other heroines like Mahie Gill etc, if the filmmakers are to be believed, don’t even know how much they are getting for a film.