How a ₹4.35 crore per minute cameo created India's highest-paid actor; he beat Shah Rukh, Salman Khan, Prabhas, Vijay

This actor charged ₹4.35 crore per minute for an appearance in a blockbuster, making it the highest per-diem salary in Indian cinema.

Updated on: Jun 7, 2025, 08:00:20 IST

By Abhimanyu Mathur

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It was in the 90s that Chiranjeevi became the first Indian actor to charge ₹1 crore for a film. It soon became the benchmark to measure top stars, with the three Khans and Akshay Kumar soon joining the ranks, along with Sridevi and Madhuri Dixit. But over time, the ₹1-crore sum became small, with even supporting actors charging that. Soon, it became ₹10 crore and eventually ₹100 crore. In the midst of it all, in 2019, an actor charged a staggering ₹4.35 crore per minute for a role, reshaping the economics of film casting. (Also read: India's highest-paid actress earns ₹30 crore per film, has no release in 6 years, yet beat Deepika, Alia Bhatt, Kareena)

A cameo helped this star become India's highest-paid actor.

The actor who charged ₹4.35 crore per minute

In 2017, after the stupendous success of Baahubali 2, SS Rajamouli announced his next project with Jr NTR and Ram Charan. The film was eventually titled RRR, with more cast members joining over the next few months. Early in 2019, Bollywood star Ajay Devgn signed on for a cameo, alongside Alia Bhatt and Shriya Saran, who joined later. Ajay Devgn was only on screen in RRR for 8 minutes, but he charged ₹35 crore for his appearance, the most expensive cameo in Indian cinema history. The ₹4.35 crore per minute fees were the highest per diem charged by any actor in India at the time.

Ajay Devgn with SS Rajamouli on the sets of RRR.

To put it into perspective, Shah Rukh Khan would have to charge ₹300 crore for Jawan (more than the film's budget) for his 70-minute screen time in the film. Going by the ₹4.35 crore per minute rate, Rajinikanth for Jailer, Salman Khan for Tiger 3, Prabhas for Kalki 2898 AD, and Allu Arjun for Pushpa 2 would all have to charge ₹250-300 crore, much higher than what they eventually did. This cameo made Ajay the highest-paid actor in India, at least by this metric.

Ajay eventually did become the highest-paid OTT star in the country when he signed Hotstar's Rudra: The Edge of Darkness for ₹125 crore in 2021.

Ajay Devgn's recent films

Ajay Devgn has tasted box office success post-pandemic multiple times, with the success of films like Drishyam 2, Raid 2, and Singham Again. The actor reportedly varies his fees depending on the project, lowering it to ₹20 crore for small-budget films like Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha and Raid 2, but also elevating it to over ₹40 crore for bigger titles like Singham Again.

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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