Several stakeholders of the Indian film industry have deliberated on the escalating star fees and tantrums lately. Now, veteran filmmaker and lyricist Javed Akhtar has added his insights to the debate about skyrocketing entourage fees. During his appearance at Chill Sesh hosted by top stand-up artists Biswa Kaylan Rath Sapan Verma, and Shreeja Chaturvedi, Akhtar quipped about the unnecessary costs.
He revealed that this issue has been persistent and several filmmakers have criticised the rising tantrums of new stars. Taking the hosts and the audience aback, the filmmaker revealed that hairstylists charge 75,000 per day. The legendary lyricist jokingly remarked that had he known, he would have become a hairstylist.
Akhtar elaborated, “I’ve heard more about it now, than before. They need three vans, they exercise in one van, food gets prepared in another, in the third van they sit and eat, something like this is happening. They bring 18-19 staff members, one of them keeps fixing their hair and they get Rs 75,000 per day. If we had known then we would have learned the same work. All this happens now. Back then, people were irregular, disciplined, they used to come late, but it’s too much now. Today, you have huge money, but there was no such money back then. This is not my experience, today I am not making a film.”
As the conversation progressed, he also talked about working with his kids, Zoya and Farhan Akhtar. Javed Akhtar stated while some contemporary filmmakers may hesitate to say things to him, his kids don’t hold back. He revealed that while Farhan didn’t indulge in an argument and simply rejected his lines, Zoya challenged him. Explaining the rationale, the filmmaker said that since his kids are fluent in English, they think and write in that language. On the flip side, Javed Akhtar is more comfortable with Urdu and Hindustani. However, he also iterated that he has written several dialogues for his kids’ films.
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During his time as a filmmaker, Javed Akhtar has delivered several hits with Salim Khan. The ace directorial duo of Salim-Javed is credited with developing the personality of the ‘Angry Young Man’ for Amitabh Bachchan with ‘Zanjeer.’