Vijay Deverakonda is the biggest medium-range star of Tollywood. His fee is believed to be something like Rs 15-20 Cr. The budget of 'Liger' was touted to be upwards of Rs 90 Cr. The hero alone is speculated to have charged about Rs 25 Cr, considering the promotions for the pan-India film took weeks on end.
It is said that Vijay charged Rs 6 Cr or so for doing 'World Famous Lover' since it came after a blockbuster like 'Geetha Govindam'. His stardom ensured that its producer, KS Raama Rao, raked in a lot of moolah before the release of the movie by selling theatrical rights for a bomb. Abhishek Pictures incurred a huge loss of Rs 8 Cr on that movie as a distributor. The distribution house yesterday made the quantum of loss public, sparking speculations about how much Vijay must be making from each movie.
A section of Tollywood media claims that Vijay was not paid the agreed fee for 'Liger' and 'Geetha Govindam'. This may actually be true. At the pre-release event of 'Liger', Puri Jagannadh spoke of the generosity of Vijay in forgoing revenue in the larger interests of the project. (The project ran into delays due to Covid-19. Its budget ballooned due to unavoidable reasons).
However, Netizens are not buying into this argument. Their contention is that Vijay couldn't have turned into a film producer had his remuneration been so low (the speculation is that he earned just about Rs 2 Cr for doing 'Geetha Govindam'). The worth of Vijay's palatial house in Jubilee Hills is said to be more than Rs 15 Cr. How could he have built that "dream house" even before 'Liger' happened? That's the question Netizens are asking.
There is a possibility that Vijay is super-rich because he earns a great deal from brand endorsements.
Any way, nobody can know the truth of the matter. Even if Vijay were to make his Income-Tax Returns public, people would continue to harbour convenient doubts.
