Following the dismal performance of Laal Singh Chaddha at the box office, it is being reported that Aamir Khan will not be charging any fee for the film. This could reportedly save the studio Rs. 100 crores as the film’s budget was approximately Rs. 80 crores but it earned only approximately Rs. 60 crores.

Liger starring Vijay Deverakonda and Ananya Panday also didn’t perform as expected and it was reported that Vijay is likely to return Rs. 6 crores from his fee to the producers. It was also reported that Liger’s producer Puri Jagannadh is likely to compensate the distributors.

Trade experts say that as this is a matter between the actors and the studios, hence it may never be revealed which portion of the losses were absorbed or not, but they say that even for A-listers, it is an extremely rare gesture to compensate producers or distributors.

A source shares, “In the last ten years, Aamir Khan has not charged a single rupee as his fee, which also includes his latest, Laal Singh Chaddha. So even if there is a loss, it only falls on Aamir’s shoulders without affecting any of the other partners. However, all production cost borne by both studio and production house of LSC will break-even via all non theatrical earnings itself. Also, we can only discuss the profit and loss of the project at a later stage.”

With recent flops, it is being discussed that the assumption that A-listers will attract an audience does not seem to hold any longer. And so A-listers should perhaps stop charging enormous fees. Raj Bansal, an industry expert, says, “Who knows what is actually refunded or not as it is between the actor and studio. But this decision is spot-on and is a gesture of goodwill. We can’t dismiss that the film suffered huge losses, and it makes sense to bear the losses together. However, it is extremely rare in the film industry that any actor or producer would return money or their fee because of poor performance of a film. My question is that when Dangal or other hit films of Aamir Khan made hundreds of crores, everyone from the producer, exhibitor to distributor benefited from the film’s success; then nobody said that they are going to pay extra money to Aamir, as the film worked because of him. Then why make Aamir pay for losses now? Aamir is one of the finest actors, and as a distributor, I’m definitely going to back up his next, too, without any hesitation. ”

Girish Johar, producer and business analyst, says, “It is about understanding the value of this chain of producers-distributors-exhibitors. It has sometimes worked out in a manner that the producer would absorb one portion of the loss while the distributor would absorb the other portion. This is done so that this ecosystem doesn’t collapse in the face of financial losses.”

Girish points out that there have been a few more instances when stars refunded 40-50% amount to compensate for the losses. Reportedly, Shah Rukh Khan, who was also the producer of Dilwale, refunded 50% money to distributors. Salman Khan also refunded some portion for Tubelight. Moreover, Akshay Kumar was quoted as saying that he was surprised to find out that Rajinikanth (who was also producer of the film Baba) returned distributors’ money after the film didn’t do well at the box office in 2002.

Bansal notes that these instances of returning money to the distributor are so few that one can count them on their fingers. He said, “In my entire career, I have received money only twice from producers. I had received a cheque and a note twice mentioning that the producer was sorry for my losses (Lamhe and Tumko Na Bhool Paayenge). It is important to point out that nobody asked them to return their money.”

Trade experts say that not taking a fee or refunding distributors is rare. However, it could help other stakeholders.