Fan, which was supposed to resuscitate the acting career of Shah Rukh Khan, after he received whole lot of criticism for some of his previous films like Happy New Year, Dilwale etc, got accolades from film critics. But box-office collections decided otherwise. According to trade pundits, the film made at a cost of Rs105 crores could so far recover only Rs74 crores. So, apparently producers and distributors have incurred a loss of Rs31 crores.

SRK, of course, got his fees separately in the form of satellite rights which allegedly got him Rs35 crores to Rs40 crores. So should he reimburse his producer, friend Aditya Chopra of Yash Raj films, who in turn will pay back the distributors of the film?

There is an emphatic ‘no’ from some and a ‘yes’ from others. In fact, the subject of compensating the losses was started with the debacle of last year’s Bombay Velvet, directed and co-produced by Anurag Kashyap. Made with a whopping budget of Rs120 crores, it could recover only Rs32 crores. This is when Kashyap of Phantom Films was supposed to have ‘offered’ to bear the losses.

The debate has started again: to reimburse or not to reimburse; that is the question. It was rekindled with the debacle of SRK’s Fan. Should actors pay back producers if their films flop?

Following this media declaration was the misfortune of another film, Tamasha, directed by Imtiaz Ali starring Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone. Distributors had paid a huge amount as the film had former sweethearts Ranbir and Deepika, with one of the most successful directors Imtiaz at the helm. The film flopped! It is said that both the protagonists offered to pay back Rs15 crores to the producers.

The offer of returning the fees was started by South Indian super star Rajinikant when his 2014 film Lingaa crashed. The film was sold to distributors for Rs135 crores. Many of them could barely recover 30 per cent of their down payment. This is when Rajinikant was asked to pay for the flop. Ditto for another southern super star, Kamal Hassan.

The question here is not if the actors and directors paid back the damages. No one can prove any claims. But the question is: should the actors and directors pay back, especially when the money paid to rope in the top stars runs into several crores?

It is said that in the Hindi film industry, A grade actors like the Khans (SRK, Salman, Aamir, Saif), Akshay Kumar, Ranbir Kapoor, Shahid Kapoor, Ranveer Singh, Ajay Devgan and a few others charge big — between Rs15 crores to Rs50 crores per film. Top female actresses like Deepika, Kangana, Kareena, Aishwarya, Katrina, Anushka, Priyanka, Alia too are supposed to get paid anything between Rs5 crores to Rs15 crores per film. This kind of money is paid as the film-makers have seen the track records of these money-making ‘machines’.

The losses incurred by Kaagaz ke Phool was one of the reasons for the actor-director Guru Dutt to take the extreme step of ending his life. Raj Kapoor incurred heavy losses when Mera Naam Joker and Satyam Shivam Sundaram flopped.

The producers, who in the present scenario are mostly well-known film studios, are the investors and they study all the pros and cons like star status, the director and music director’s previous records and only then do they rope in sponsors and invest. In fact, the makers of A-grade Hindi films, unlike the olden days, rarely lose money now.

So when we had Guru Dutt, Dev Anand, Raj Kapoor, B.R. Chopra, Kamal Amrohi etc. making films, they were lone rangers and if the film bombed, these producers lost heavily — many of them literally everything they owned! It is said that the losses incurred by the film Kaagaz ke Phool was one of the reasons for the actor-director Guru Dutt to take the extreme step of ending his life. Raj Kapoor incurred heavy losses when his film Mera Naam Joker and Satyam Shivam Sundaram flopped. Almost on the verge of bankruptcy, the super-success of the film Bobby helped him survive. In his later years, Dev Anand continued to lose money on every film he made.

In Hollywood, top-notch actors like Tom Hanks, Brad Pitt, George Clooney and others magnanimously offer to take a cut in the next film under the same banner when a film flops.

So why should SRK and his ilk pay back the producers when they were not paid extra for their earlier super-duper hit films when the same production houses had raked in huge profits? A film is conceived, planned and marketed by others. Actors are just the major tools to sell the product. All they do is perform.

As the character of Dharmendra in the film Chupke Chupke (1975) says: “Actor kya hai … director ki haath ki kathputli ...”

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, May 22nd, 2016