India's highest-paid musician earns ₹10 crore per album, beat AR Rahman, Arijit Singh, Pritam, Diljit Dosanjh at age 33

The highest-paid musician in India earns a staggering ₹10 crore per album, and is a favourite of stars like Rajinikanth, Shah Rukh Khan, and Vijay.

Updated on: Jan 28, 2025, 10:40:06 IST

By Abhimanyu Mathur

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For years, AR Rahman has been the most prominent and bankable music composer in the country. His albums have been chartbusters frequently, allowing him to charge crores per film. However, in 2023, a young upstart dethroned him as India's highest-paid musician, charging nine figures for a single project. And he did all this at the age of 33. (Also read: World's highest-paid TV star does not act, yet makes $75 million a year, beat Jennifer Lopez, Nicole Kidman, Chris Pratt)

India's highest-paid musician

Anirudh Ravichander, the popular music composer known for Tamil films such as Jailer, Petta, Master, and Vikram, is the highest-paid music composer in India and, consequently, the highest-paid musician too. In 2023, Anirudh made his Bollywood debut with the compositions for Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Jawan. News 18 reported that the composer charged ₹10 crore for the film, eclipsing AR Rahman's usual ₹7-8 crore fees per film. Notably, Anirudh brought his fees down for his subsequent films. Times of India reported that he charged ₹8 crore each for Leo and Jailer. Yet, he remains India's highest-paid composer.

How Anirudh beat stalwarts

Anirudh has been instrumental in bringing a new sound to Tamil cinema music. The composer is known to experiment with techno music and integrate actors' real-life personas for the background score for their characters. This helped him compose scores for the biggest stars like Rajinikanth (in Petta and Jailer), Kamal Haasan (in Vikram), Vijay (in Master and Leo), and Shah Rukh Khan (in Jawan). He has become a staple in the ‘camps’ of many stars like SRK, Rajini and Vijay. The fact that some of his tracks have become anthems for the stars - notably Hukum from Jailer - has elevated his stature in the industry. The success of the score has allowed the musician to hike his fees. This led to Anirudh charging ₹10 crore for a film at the age of 33.

Other Indian music composers like Pritam, Vishal-Shekhar, MM Keeravani, and Yuvan Shankar Raja all charge under ₹5 crore per film. The amount is even lower for singers, as they charge ₹15-20 lakh per song, and it rarely reaches a crore for one film. For private albums, singers can rake in over a crore, as Diljit Dosanjh routinely does.

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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