India's highest-paid musician just earned ₹25 crore for one album; beat AR Rahman, Arijit Singh, Pritam, Diljit Dosanjh

This one composer has just negotiated a deal of ₹25 crore for a single soundtrack, the highest in the history of Indian music.

The film industry has come a long way from the days when singers like Lata Mangeshkar and Mohammed Rafi had to fight to be paid more than ₹500 per song, while the top stars were earning lakhs per film. Today, the top musicians in India earn in lakhs per song and in excess of ₹1 crore for an album. But a recent development has seen a new composer take the top spot in the list of India's highest-paid musicians.

India's highest-paid musician just negotiated a ₹25 crore for a single album.

India's highest-paid musician

Insiders tell HT that Mithoon, the composer, has managed to negotiate an unprecedented fee for his contributions to his next soundtrack for an untitled romantic drama. While the other details about the film are under wraps for now, sources tell us that Mithoon will be paid an astronomical sum, exceeding ₹25 crore, for his work on the complete score of the film. Sources tell us that Mithoon has collaborated with the director before, and their work gave chartbusters earlier. The celebrated director and Mithoon embarked on their collaborative journey almost two decades ago, which encouraged the producers to invest this much into Mithoon's work. This is the first time any music composer has managed to command such a price for work on just one album.

Other high-earning music composers of India

Before Mithoon, Anirudh Ravichander held this record, when he charged over ₹10 crore for composing the score for Shah Rukh Khan's Jawan. Notably, Anirudh brought his fees down for his subsequent films. The Times of India reported that he charged ₹8 crore each for Leo and Jailer. Yet, he remained India's highest-paid composer till Mithoon dethroned him. Before him, for years, AR Rahman has been the most prominent and bankable music composer in the country. Rahman usually charges ₹8 crore per film, which can go higher if he is singing any track in the film, too.

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.