Actor Ranveer Singh and director Aditya Dhar accepted smaller upfront fees for the Dhurandhar franchise in exchange for backend profit-sharing deals.
This financial arrangement allowed the production to navigate significant budget overruns while ensuring the talent benefited from the films' eventual commercial success. It represents a shift in how high-budget Indian cinema manages financial risk between studios and stars.
Jyoti Deshpande, a co-producer from Jio Studios, said Singh opted to take a smaller fee and benefit from backend profit-sharing. This decision came as production costs for the two-part saga doubled [1]. By reducing the fixed costs associated with top-tier talent, the production could allocate more resources to the films' execution.
The strategy proved lucrative for both the actor and the director. Deshpande said Singh had a smaller fixed fee for Dhurandhar but made huge profits through the profit-sharing model [2]. The financial gamble was supported by the franchise's performance at the box office.
The two-part saga, released between 2023 and 2024, achieved an unprecedented level of commercial success [1]. According to production data, the combined worldwide box-office gross of Dhurandhar and Dhurandhar: Revenge exceeded Rs 3,000 crore [1].
Such deals are increasingly used in large-scale productions to align the interests of the creative team with the financial performance of the project. By tying compensation to the final gross, the studio reduced its initial liability, a critical move when costs were escalating during filming.
“Ranveer Singh opted to take a smaller fee and benefit from backend profit-sharing.”
The use of backend profit-sharing for the Dhurandhar franchise highlights a growing trend in the Hindi-film industry to mitigate the risks of 'ballooning' production budgets. By shifting from guaranteed high upfront fees to performance-based incentives, studios can maintain liquidity during filming while offering talent a higher potential ceiling if the project becomes a global hit.
