Hyderabad: Star salaries and rising production costs are not the only reason for the budgets of films escalating every year. The top directors charge almost as much as the highest paid actors and with every hit, the asking price goes up. In fact, the price of the top directors of T-Town don’t waver even if their films are flops. Here are the top five directors of Tollywood in terms of remuneration per film. All figures mentioned are approximates.
S. S. Rajamouli
Rajamouli, definitely the numero uno director in the Telugu industry, charges around Rs 14 crore for a film. Sources say that he also invests in most of his films. And apart from his remuneration, Rajamouli, or rather his family, makes extra bucks as his family members are also usually involved in his films. His wife Rama, for example, is almost always the costume designer for his films. The dialogues writer is his close relative, music director Keeravani is his brother and his son Karthikeya also works in his projects. Most of Rajamouli’s films have been hits except a few, like Sye, which was average. The director is known never to compromises and always gets what he wants. With Maryada Ramanna, he has also proved that he can turn a small film into a blockbuster.
Trivikram Srinivas 10 Crore
Trivikram Srinivas is a sought-after director as his films almost never flop. He prefers to entertain with his films and is very popular for his “punch” dialogues. His films also always do well overseas, so much so that he is known as the “Overseas King”. The advantage for Trivikram is that he also writes the dialogues and the screenplays. Like Rajamouli, he too never compromises on anything, the flipside of which is that the production costs escalate.
Puri Jagannath 9 Crore
Puri Jagannath makes films faster than any other director in T-Town. Even before he starts shooting, Puri announces the release date of the film. He also starts filming with a bound script and never makes changes midway. From his debut film Badri in 2000, Puri has always been in demand, even during the period when he gave back-to-back flops. He has also produced many of his films and has proven that he can turn a small film into a blockbuster. He propelled actor Ravi Teja into the big league with films like Idiot and Amma Nanna O Tamil Ammayi. He also delivered one of the biggest blockbusters, Pokiri, with Mahesh Babu in 2010.
V.V. Vinayak 8 Crore
V.V. Vinayak, who has worked with all the top actors like Balakrishna, Jr NTR, Chiranjeevi, Prabhas, Bunny and Charan, is introducing a fresh face for the first time — Bellamkonda Srinivas — in his new film Alludu Seenu. The director is also known to make changes in the script in the last minute. Most of his 12 films have been blockbusters, and he is reportedly charging the makers '9 crore for Alludu Seenu.
Srinu Vaitla 8 Crore
Srinu Vaitla, whose career started a little late, emerged after the 2007 hit Dhee, which was followed by two more blockbusters Dubai Seenu and Ready. Since then, Srinu Vaitla has become one of the most sought-after directors. Like Trivikram, his films, too, do extremely well overseas.
He is even known for the ‘Sreenu Vaitla brand of comedy’ and most of his films are entertainers with their own particular style of comedy that continues to work.
