Actors Tovino Thomas and Joju George have agreed to a pay cut in their new movies after the Kerala Film Producers Association (KFPA) stuck to its declared stance that artistes need to reduce their salary in view of the financial crisis induced by the pandemic.
The producers of the movies starring Mr. Thomas and Mr. George informed the project scrutiny committee of the KFPA on Thursday that the actors had agreed to reduce their pay. The agreement signed between the two artistes and their producers will be re-drafted after including the reduced fee.
Scrutiny committee
Siyad Kokker, convener of the scrutiny committee, said that the pay for Mr. Thomas mentioned in the agreement was ₹1 crore while the corresponding figure for Mr. George was ₹50 lakh. Mr. George had now agreed to reduce it to ₹30 lakh. Mr. Thomas said that he would complete the film without collecting any advance from his producer. The actor would take a share of the profit earned by the producer as his salary after the release, he said.
The producers’ association had earlier pointed out that a few actors had increased the fee for movies signed in the pandemic period despite repeated pleas to reduce it in view of the financial crisis faced by the producers. A newcomer, whose salary was ₹15 lakh for her last movie, increased it to ₹25 lakh for her latest assignment. The KFPA had sought the cooperation of the Film Employees Federation of Kerala for instructing film production executives not to encourage ventures in which the artistes were found demanding higher salaries.
