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Amrish Puri was one of the highest-paid villains in Indian Cinema. The deep baritone always worked wonders when the man was on screen. Be it Nayak’s Chief Minister or Gadar’s Pakistani who compels Sunny Deol to chant Hindustan Murdabad. The actor’s performance had always been phenomenal.
The superstar for the first time was cast as the villain in a film called Hum Paanch that was produced by Boney Kapoor. The producer in one of his interviews once confirmed that the actor was paid 40,000 INR to play Bapu but his performance was so good that he was paid an additional 10,000 INR, making it 50,000 INR for the first act as a villain!
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However, Amrish Puri was immortalized as the villain when he said that one dialogue that changed his entire life – Mogambo Khush Hua. Boney Kapoor cast the actor as Mogambo despite much resistance from his team. But Amrish Puri and his shaved head became the iconic reference for a villain!
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In one of his interviews, the Nayak superstar admitted that he was being paid as much as 1 crore. In fact, this Rediff interview also claims that he even walked out of a film because the demand for his paycheck was not being met. The actor spoke at length about his market price and said, “I have to get what is my due. I do not compromise on my acting, do I? So why should I accept less? People come to watch me act. The producer is getting money from his distributors because I am there in the film. Then am I wrong in charging my producers?”
While reports suggest that Amrish Puri used to charge 1 crore for a film, it is said he charged the same amount for Mr. India as well. That is almost 9 times higher than Sridevi‘s 11 lakh fee! While none can confirm if this was his market price at that time, it seems a bit stretched since Mr. India was mounted on a budget of 3.5 crore. The villain charging 1 crore would have been 28% of the film’s entire budget!
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Amrish Puri definitely was the highest-paid villain of his time, getting a fee of 1 crore. This is true since the actor talked about his market price in an interview. However, this interview dates back to 1998, almost 10 years after Mr. India, and this would have been the time he must have been charging this amount as he talked about walking out of films when not given the right amount. He said, “The Sippy film, I was signed long back, with a promise that work on the movie would start in a year. It is three years now, and my market rate has risen. If he cannot pay me that much, I cannot do his film, right?”
Amrish Puri shifted gears and was the most iconic father on screen when he played Simran’s father in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jaayenge. The actor has been nominated for the Filmfare Award for Best Villain nine times!
For more such stories, stay tuned to Koimoi.
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