New Delhi:
Kangana Ranaut can get pricey offscreen and even onscreen. Playing on her successful stint from Queen to Manikarnika all through and dependable acting chops, the 32-year-old national award-winning actress has quoted a whopping Rs 24 crore for playing the Tamil Nadu CM in J Jayalalithaa biopic.
Yes, considering her to be the highest paid actress of Bollywood right now, a source close to the development spilt the beans stating, "Kangana is being paid to the tune of Rs 24 crore for the bilingual project, which will be made in Hindi and Tamil. The makers are sure that her star power will help reach a pan-India audience. Whenever Hindi artistes have done South movies, they have always shared screen space with a top star from the region. But the Manikarnika heroine will be leading from the front as the movie revolves around her character’s journey. The producers have already signed a contract with her.”
Kangana certainly is raising the bar for women in Bollywood and bringing in pay parity when big names like Salman Khan take nothing less than 60 crores for a movie and Ranveer Singh charges 5 crores for a 5-minute performance. Reports earlier suggested, Deepika Padukone took home Rs 10 crore for Padmaavat, an amount more than his co-stars Shahid Kapoor and Ranveer Singh, making her the highest paid actress.
“Jayalalithaaji is one of the biggest female success stories of this century. She was a superstar and went on to become an iconic politician, it’s a great concept for a mainstream film. I am honoured to be a part of this mega project", quoted Kangana in her official statement released by the makers of the film.
The biopic will be helmed by AL Vijay who mostly works for the Tamil film industry and is known for directing movies like Madrasapattinam and Deiva Thirumagal. The film will be bilingual and will be titled Thalaivi in Tamil and Jaya in Hindi.
The screenplay will be done by KV Vijayendra Prasad of Baahubali fame. He has also worked with Kangana earlier in Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi. The bilingual will be produced by Vibri & Karma Media and Entertainment.
