Meet India's biggest celebrity taxpayer, paid ₹92 crore tax in 2024; it's not Akshay Kumar, Virat Kohli, or Salman Khan

The list of biggest celebrity taxpayers of India was headed by a star whose films have earned ₹2600 crore at the box office in the last year.

Published on: Nov 28, 2024, 12:51:36 IST

By Abhimanyu Mathur

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Celebrities may not rival big businessmen in their earnings, but they are still among the highest-paid individuals in any country. In India, top film stars and sports icons earn enough to pay crores in taxes. The biggest tax-paying celebrity in the country paid ₹92 crore in taxes in the last year alone.

India's biggest celebrity tax-payer towered above all Bollywood stars and cricketers in 2023-24.

India's biggest tax-paying celebrity

Fortune India released the list of the highest tax-paying celebrities in India in September this year. This list featured celebs who had paid high taxes for the 2023-24 financial year. Superstar Shah Rukh Khan topped the list, unsurprisingly, with ₹92 crore paid in taxes. This was expected given that Shah Rukh had a bumper 2023 with three blockbuster releases. But the distance with which he was ahead of the rest was startling. The next name after Shah Rukh was Tamil star Vijay, popularly known as Thalapathy among fans. The 50-year-old paid ₹80 crore tax in 2023-24. The two bigwigs were followed by Salman Khan ( ₹75 crore), Amitabh Bachchan ( ₹71 crore), and Virat Kohli ( ₹66 crore). The top-ranked female celeb in the list was Kareena Kapoor, just outside the top 10 with ₹20 crore tax paid. (Also read: Shah Rukh Khan beats Virat Kohli as India's biggest tax-paying celebrity; paid ₹92 crore in 2024: Full list)

How Shah Rukh Khan and Vijay raced to the top

2023-24 was a blockbuster year for both the table toppers. Shah Rukh Khan made his Bollywood comeback in January 2023 with Pathaan, which grossed over ₹1000 crore worldwide. He did even better with his next release - Jawan - grossing ₹1150 crore. His last release of the year - Dunki - wasn't as big a hit, but still managed to earn over ₹400 crore. The profit share and earnings made Shah Rukh the highest-paid actor in India after almost a decade. Similarly, Vijay had a big blockbuster release in 2023-24 - The Greatest of All Time, which earned over ₹600 crore. As per some reports, the actor was paid over ₹200 crore for the film.

Fortune India specified that the figures were calculated using the advance tax payments by these individuals for the 2023-24 financial year.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Abhimanyu Mathur
Abhimanyu Mathur is Deputy Editor, Entertainment at Hindustan Times. With almost 15 years of experience in writing about everything from films and TV shows to cricket matches and elections, he inhales and exhales pop culture and news. Currently, he watches movies and TV shows and talks to celebrities for a living, while occasionally writing about them as well. A journalism graduate of Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, Delhi University, Abhimanyu began his career with Hindustan Times at the age of 20, swapping classrooms for newsrooms at an early age. He began his journey in the early days of digital journalism, later switching to the madness of print journalism. Work has led him to far off places like Japan and Jordan, as well as to the interiors of Haryana and the Indo-Pak border. He dabbled in city reporting in places like Meerut, Gurgaon, and Delhi, covered the Olympics and Cricket World Cups, before finding his calling in entertainment and lifestyle during the pandemic. A Rotten Tomatoes Certified Film Critic, he is equally at home covering stories on ground as he is interviewing celebrities and studios, and sometimes prefers to shepherd teams in delivering traffic through the day. Even as his role has evolved from reporter to supervisor over the years, his first love remains writing (and of late, talking on camera). With a good understanding of cinema and its trends, and a keen eye for detail, he continues to spark conversations around showbiz for readers around the world.Read More

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