Aamir Khan 'waives off' Laal Singh Chaddha fee to make up for losses

Bollywood actor Aamir Khan is still reeling from the aftermath of Laal Singh Chaddha's box office disaster. The actor's latest offering, according to the Indian media, had suffered a mammoth loss of at least INR1 billion. Now, Aamir, whose production house had produced the film as well, is rumoured to have waived his fee for Laal Singh Chaddha.

A source told Bollywood Hungama, “If Aamir Khan decides to charge his acting fees, Viacom 18 Studios would have entailed losses of nearly INR1 billion. However, that loss is something that Aamir Khan has decided to absorb himself. Now, the producer will lose nominal money.”

The source further added, “He gave four years to the film but has not made a single penny from it. His opportunity cost on Laal Singh Chaddha is upwards of Rs. 100 crores, but he has decided to absorb all the losses taking the complete blame of failure on himself.”

Laal Singh Chaddha, which had faced intense criticism and boycott prior to its release, failed to mint big numbers at the Indian box office. However, the film went on to become the highest-grossing Hindi film at the international box office, earning more than Gangubai Kathiawadi and The Kashmir Files.

With $7.5 million (INR590m) in over a week of release, Laal Singh Chaddha has managed to surpass Gangubai Kathiawadi ($7.47 million), Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 ($5.88 million), and The Kashmir Files ($5.7 million). By comparison, each of those three movies was also a major hit in India. The Telugu hit RRR, however, has made nearly $20 million from international markets.

While Laal Singh Chadda had already faced delayed releases and a social media boycott due to comments Khan has made in the past, no one could have anticipated such a drastic drop in collections, especially for a Forrest Gump remake released around the time of the Indian Independence Day.

Being called Khan’s biggest career setback since the release of Mela, the film is projected to cross the INR500 million mark at the end of the first week, finishing its theatrical run at INR550 to 570 million. These losses have proved to be monumental, with stakeholders and filmmakers trying to manage the crashing collections the best they can for a film made on a budget of INR1.8 billion.