Mainstream film stars like Shahid Kapoor, Sidharth Malhotra, Varun Dhawan, and Anushka Sharma who will soon be seen in web originals, will be looking at a 15-20% premium over the remuneration they ordinarily receive for feature film projects. OTT (over-the-top) streaming platforms that are commissioning only a few of these originals headlined by film stars, continue to believe in their draw among audiences. Further, higher pay comes from the fact that actors do not get to own any portion of the IP when it comes to web projects and are also expected to commit a higher number of working hours for 8-10 episode shows.
Actors like Dhawan and Malhotra could be making anything between ₹20-30 crore for movie projects.
One of the reasons for stars to go on to smaller screens has always been higher pay, even television has traditionally paid more given that the number of programming hours is more, according to media industry experts. A film requires two-and-a-half hours of content at most, while the star’s time, spread out over multiple episodes in case of a web show, makes for nearly five to six hours of content. The difference between films and web projects is that the former is hugely star-dependent and lead actors take up nearly 70-80% of the overall budget and production making up only 20-25% whereas web shows allocate at least 40-45% of overall investments to production standards. While final pay may be determined by the number of days required from the star and the number of seasons committed to, streaming platforms continue to realise the presence of stars ensures reach.
