In the game of one-upmanship among Bollywood actors, there is a constant struggle to raise the bar when it comes to charging a big, fat fee for films and even their television ad endorsements.
And looks like Aamir Khan has stolen a big march over the rest of the industry as buzz is that the star has charged R 88 crore for signing up for an endorsement deal. Sources claim that the deal, which is for a year, involves the star to shoot for a series of ads -- two of which are already out. Aamir will apparently be paid the amount over a period of time.
An insider says, `After Aamir ended his contract for his previous commercial brand endorsements during the shoot of his TV show with a social message, this is the first ad he has done for a commercial brand.
He is careful about choosing endorsements and when the company offered him the deal, he took his own time to sign it. After the initial talks, he quoted a huge amount of Rs 88 crore.`
While these days stars are known to earn quite a massive part of their fortune from brand ads, Aamir's fee leaves the rest of the B-Town brigade far behind.
The source adds, `Aamir's fee appears to be mindboggling but the brand wanted to shoot a series of ads with him. They were looking forward to a change in their strategy and hence agreed to rope in Aamir even at such a high cost. They are eagerly waiting to see if the sales figures have shown growth after the actor came on board.`
While Aamir's spokesperson refused to comment, the brand representative remained unavailable.
The big buck earners
Kareena Kapoor - Rs 10 crore for endorsing a Delhi-based construction company
Katrina Kaif - Rs 8 crore for a paint ad
Ranbir Kapoor Rs - Rs 8 crore for a soft drink brand
Salman Khan - Rs 20 crore for a cola commercial
