Credit Crunch Hits Kollywood

It looks like heroes like Vijay and Ajith who act in formula movies to please their fan base need to be realistic in their salary expectations. With low-budget and offbeat movies like Subramaniapuram, Chennai 600028 and Saroja doing well in the box office, story value is slowly and surely getting more prominence over star value.

Following the poor show of blockbusters, Tamil film producers have asked stars to slash their rates by at least 60 percent, warning that they would have to otherwise think twice before launching new projects, officials in the Tamil film industry said.

The move comes within 10 days of entertainment major Pyramid Saimira saying it had deferred the production of Kamal Haasan starrer "Marmayogi" due to "liquidity constraints in the film industry".

Mani Ratnam may also have to slash the budget of his ongoing bilingual project by at least 40 percent.

Though the South Indian Artistes' Association refrained from comment over the development, two top stars have informed their producers that they would rather sit idle than slash their prices. (Link)