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SOUTH INDIA'S TOP EARNING HEROINES
With Priyanka Chopra earning 9 crore for a film, Chennai Times takes a look at how our south heroines fare in comparison
Sunayana Suresh
Bollywood hottie Priyanka Chopra has reportedly got paid a whopping amount of 9 crore for acting opposite Tollywood star Ram Charan Teja in his Bollywood debut, Zanjeer. While this sum pushes her to being the highest earning actress in Indian cinema today, her amount is a distant dream for her colleagues in the south. Till date, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is reported to have pocketed the most in a south Indian film, taking home a cool 6 crore to star opposite Rajinikanth in Endhiran. While this still is the benchmark for the girls down south to beat, the rest seem to have have made progress in their own way. After the girls in Bollywood, the actresses who are reportedly being paid big bucks are from Kollywood and Tollywood. Since the two industries share a symbiotic relationship, the heroines flit between the two states and command an equal price and popularity in both.
Goan beauty Ileana, for instance, is said to have been paid the most for her Tamil film Nanban — she was reportedly paid 1.5 crore. Nayanthara, who has signed on four films after nearly a year, is also rumoured to have been paid the same amount for her comeback films.
Local girl Trisha is said to be commanding a price of 1.2 crore, which makes her the highest paid actress hailing from Tamil Nadu. Others in the one crore plus club are rumoured to be Anushka Shetty and Kajal Aggarwal. Young sensation Samantha too is reportedly earning over a crore in Telugu cinema while Tamannaah and Taapsee Pannu are inching their way up.
Says a top Telugu producer, "The Tamil and Telugu film
industries today command markets that have challenged
some big Bollywood films. This is one reason why heroines too make an equally big factor for these films." While Tamil and Telugu film industries have actresses earning big sums, their notso-flamboyant counterparts in Kerala and Karnataka lag far, far behind. While the topmost paid Kannada heroine till date is supposed to be Nayanthara, who reportedly got paid over 50 lakh for the film Super, Kannada girl Ramya (Divya Spandana) earns over 40 lakh for her Kannada films.
A Kannada film producer says, "The budgets of some of the biggest Kannada and Malayalam films are still onetenth of the big budget Tamil and Telugu films. The markets for these films too aren't as wide just as yet. The Telugu and Tamil films have a big overseas audience today just like Bollywood. This is the reason the money invested isn't as big as compared to them."
In Malayalam, Bollywood and Kollywood imports are said to fetch salaries that are between
20 to 30 lakh, but the highest paid local girl currently is Kavya Madhavan, who's said to be getting 17 lakh per
film.
L E T ' S TA L K F I G U R E S !
BOLLYWOOD'S TOP EARNERS
PRIYANKA CHOPRA – 9 crore for Zanjeer
KAREENA KAPOOR – 6 crore for Heroine
KATRINA KAIF – 3 crore for Dhoom 3
DEEPIKA PADUKONE – 2.5 crore for Race 2
VIDYA BALAN – 1.5 crore for Kahaani
SOUTH SIDE STORY
TOLLYWOOD – KOLLYWOOD
NAYANTHARA AND ILEANA – 1.5 crore
TRISHA – 1.2 crore
SANDALWOOD
RAMYA – 40 lakh plus
PRIYAMANI – 30 lakh plus
MOLLYWOOD
KAVYA MADHAVAN – 17 lakh
MAMTA MOHANDAS – 15 lakh
* All figures are approximate and are from industry sources
Nayanthara
Divya Spandana
Ileana
Anushka
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