SOUTH INDIA’S TOP EARNING HEROINES

With Priyanka Chopra earning 9 crore for a film, BT takes a look at how actors down south fare in comparison

Sunayana Suresh 

    Bollywood hottie Priyanka Chopra reportedly got paid a whopping amount of 9 crore for Zanjeer. While this sum makes her the highest earning actor in Indian cinema today, her pay cheque is a distant dream for her counterparts down south. 
    Till date, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan reportedly pocketed a whopping 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 made little progress in their own way. 
    Besides Ash, other south stars who command fat pay cheques in Kollywood and Tollywood are Ileana D’Cruz, Trisha and Kajal Aggarwal. 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 highest for her Tamil film Nanban for which she took home 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. 
    Trisha is said to be commanding a price of 1.2 crore, which makes her the highest paid Tamil actor. Others in the one crore plus club are rumoured to be Anushka Shetty and Kajal. Young sensation Samantha too is reportedly earning over a crore in Tollywood 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 Kollywood and Tollywood have actors earning big bucks, their not-so-flamboyant counterparts in Mollywood and Sandalwood lag far behind. The top most paid Sandalwood heroine till date is Nayanthara, 
    who got paid over 50 lakh for the film Super, while Kannada girl Ramya (Divya Spandana) earns over 40 lakh. 
    A Kannada film producer says, “The budgets 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. The Telugu and Tamil films have a big overseas audience today just like Bollywood. One of the reasons why the money invested isn’t that big as compared to other industries.” 
    In Malayalam, Bollywood and Kollywood imports fetch somewhere between 20 to 30 lakh. But, the highest paid local actor is Kavya Madhavan, who’s said to be taking home 
    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 – 1.5 crore reportedly SANDALWOODRAMYA – 40 lakh plus PRIYA MANI – 30 lakh plus MOLLYWOODKAVYA MADHAVAN – 17 lakh MAMTA MOHANDAS – 15 lakh

Ileana D’Cruz

Anushka Shetty

Ramya

Nayanthara