Actors take 79 percent, films get the scraps: Gippy Grewal calls out Bollywood’s broken economics

Ahead of the release of Carry On Jatta 4, Gippy Grewal has weighed in on one of the film industry’s biggest concerns: soaring star fees and shrinking production budgets. The actor-producer argues that Indian cinema has developed an unsustainable budgeting model in which a disproportionate share of a film’s budget goes to talent rather than production.

“In countries like Canada and Australia, the combined fees of the cast, director and writer account for about 21 per cent of a film’s budget. The remaining 79 per cent goes into making the film. Here, it’s often the opposite. Around 79 per cent is taken away by the team itself, leaving very little to make the film. Actors charge crores, and that’s where the imbalance begins,” he says.

Rather than focusing solely on cost-cutting, Gippy believes the industry needs to improve
its recovery model. “If recovery becomes healthier, production values can improve significantly. At the end of the day, it’s all mathematics,” he adds.



Addressing the debate around capping star salaries, he says the market continues to reward actors despite repeated box-office failures. “There are actors whose films haven’t worked for years, yet they’re still getting projects. I’ve even heard of actors whose films failed but who demanded higher fees afterward. Actors get paid regardless. Ideally, actors should say, ‘Don’t pay me upfront; give me a share of the profits if the film works.’ That’s a model I try to follow as well,” he shares.


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