Tamil hero knocks off 25% fee for his three future releases

With a series of reports in Tamil media about how nearly Rs 1200-1500 crore is stuck in half-a-dozen top hero projects, there has been a growing clamour among the trade bodies for relief in some form or the other. It has been an open secret for long that the remuneration for the star cast usually takes up 60 per cent of a film's budget, leaving behind a smaller share of the pie for all other film-related works.

Hence, the recent announcement as revealed by a Tamil film producer T Siva is noteworthy. As he said: 'In these troubled times, an actor of Vijay Antony's stature has agreed to reduce his remuneration by 25 per cent, which has considerably freed resources for the production team to take care of other works.

Seeing his gesture, others also should try and do their bit to help the film production proceed along smoothly'. Antony, it is reported, has taken this step for three of his films which has meant a reduction of nearly Rs one crore from his fee. The film ' Agni Siragugal' being produced by Siva has an impressive star cast with Akshara Haasan playing the female lead in the film, replacing Shalini Pandey.