Back in the 1990s, Chiranjeevi made headlines by becoming the first Indian actor to charge ₹1 crore for a film, setting a new standard for star power. This milestone quickly became a benchmark, soon matched by Bollywood giants like the three Khans, Akshay Kumar, and leading ladies such as Sridevi and Madhuri Dixit.
However, as the industry evolved, so did the numbers. The ₹1-crore fee, once considered astronomical, became commonplace even supporting actors began commanding it. The benchmark moved to ₹10 crore, and eventually to the elusive ₹100-crore club.
Amidst this shifting financial landscape, a groundbreaking moment occurred in 2019. An actor charged an unprecedented ₹4.35 crore per minute for his role, altering the economics of star cameos in Indian cinema. After the blockbuster success of Baahubali 2, director SS Rajamouli announced RRR, a mega-project featuring Jr NTR and Ram Charan. Over time, the cast expanded to include Alia Bhatt and Shriya Saran. In early 2019, Ajay Devgn came on board for a special appearance.
Though Ajay’s screen time in RRR was just around eight minutes, he reportedly charged ₹35 crore for the role making it the most expensive cameo in Indian film history. This translates to ₹4.35 crore per minute, the highest per-minute fee ever paid to an Indian actor. For comparison, if Shah Rukh Khan had been paid at this rate for his 70-minute role in Jawan, his paycheck would have exceeded ₹300 crore more than the movie’s entire production budget.
By this metric, even the biggest stars like Rajinikanth, Salman Khan, Prabhas, and Allu Arjun would need to charge upwards of ₹250–300 crore for their recent blockbusters to match Ajay’s per-minute fee.
Ajay Devgn has continued his streak of high-value projects post-pandemic, headlining hits like Drishyam 2, Raid 2, and Singham Again. In 2021, he became the highest-paid actor on OTT after signing Hotstar’s Rudra: The Edge of Darkness for ₹125 crore. Depending on the scale of the film, his fee reportedly ranges from ₹20 crore for mid-budget titles to over ₹40 crore for big-budget blockbusters.