With the movie industry dominated by mega-stars who charge producers multi-crore to sign on as the lead actor, one actor has transformed the economics of being a star with a spectacular record-breaking cameo. In a time when Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and Prabhas are charging huge sums of money to be on screen most of the time, it was a brief but memorable role of Ajay Devgn in a wildly successful film that made him earn 4.35 crore per minute.
This record-breaking supporting role not only has heads turning but has also earned him the status as in one measure alone the highest-paid actor in the country which is indicative of the power of strategic star power.
Cameo Economy And Industry Disruption
The idea of the cameo in the Indian cinema has gone through a seismic change. It was traditionally a friendly face or a short unbilled appearance, but now it is a high-stake lucrative business. The 8 minutes long role of Ajay Devgn in the Neo-epic film RRR of S.S. Rajamouli is a reflection of this changing trend with a reported fee of 35 crore. This is because of his strong performance as a freedom fighter although being short lived was vital to the story and also went deep into the hearts of the audience.
This action was an indication of a new calculation in the movie business that the worth of an actor does not lie in the number of scenes they appear in, but in the heavy and movie-star quality they have of a crucial scene. The move to give Devgn of this caliber a role was a calculated risk that paid off very well as it has shown that a well-executed, effective cameo can be worth its weight in gold, and possibly even more than the per-minute pay of traditional lead actors.
Per-Minute Earnings: The New Benchmark
When other actors such as Shah Rukh Khan and Prabhas are earning higher amounts in the totality of their films, when their total payment is split by their huge screen time, the per-minute rate is frequently a shadow of Devgn. As an example, to earn this per-minute Khan payment in a lead part in Jawan, Shah Rukh Khan would have been required to charge an amazing sum, way beyond the entire budget of the movie.
This is a phenomenal fact, which points to a new form of economic measurement in the field of Indian cinema, the measure of star force as it is not the duration of the role but the sheer force and necessity of the presence. The strategic, and strong, cameo of Devgn has already established a new, practically unattainable, level of value in the industry, and redefined the value of stars in an entirely new way.
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A recent media graduate, Bhumi Vashisht is currently making a significant contribution as a committed content writer. She brings new ideas to the media sector and is an expert at creating strategic content and captivating tales, having working in the field from past four months.
