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The A-lister has allegedly taken only a small fraction of his usually hefty pay-check for Welcome to the Jungle.

Pre-sales has covered majority of the investment

Bollywood is buzzing with the news of how producer Firoz Nadiadwala’s comic-adventure, Welcome to the Jungle, with an ensemble, headlined by A-lister, Akshay Kumar, scheduled for release later this month, has already recovered the majority of its investment. The ancillary sale of OTT, audio, satellite rights has already made the project safe.

A trade source informs, “As of now, the makers are rumoured to have finalised a deal of around 120 crores from OTT, audio, satellite, etc. They will therefore have to recover a lot less from theatrical income. Welcome is a big franchise. The earlier two films, Welcome (2007) and Welcome Back (2015) have great recall. So, the third part of the franchise is also carrying buzz. Since the secondary rights have already yielded safe numbers, the makers can breathe easy for now.”

One hears that in a bid to make this project viable Akshay, leading by example, has reportedly charged just 1.8 crore as his remuneration. But of course, he’s fully aware of his box-office potential and has inserted a rider in his contract for Welcome to the Jungle. After the film’s release, when all the monies come in, the superstar is allegedly expected to get 72 per cent on the IPR, while the producer will get 28 per cent. Despite all of this the industry is praising AK because in these turbulent times, he’s willing to complete an entire film without charging his full fees. By the way, besides the three Khans-Shah Rukh, Salman and Aamir, Akshay is one of the highest paid actors in Hindi cinema.