Director Anurag Kashyap and actress Richa Chadha opened up about the "residuals or royalties" structure in Bollywood given to actors and filmmakers citing the example of their cult classic Gangs Of Wasseypur. In her blog recently, Richa Chadha said that she was paid Rs 2.5 lakh for both parts of the film ("and that's okay," she said) but she did not get any royalty after the project went on to acquire cult status. On Twitter, Anurag Kashyap added on Sunday, "She is right. Most actors and crew got paid similar amounts or less and I had to forfeit my entire fees to make Gangs Of Wasseypur. Funny thing is we still own 50% IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) on Gangs Of Wasseypur and we have never seen a penny on it or know about its income. For the studio, it's still a flop."
Gangs Of Wasseypur was jointly made by Viacom and (now dissolved) Phantom Films - which Anurag Kashyap co-owned with Vikramaditya Motwane, Vikas Bahl and Madhu Mantena. Speaking about royalty payment in Bollywood, the Manmarziyaan director added: "Despite the film being seen the world over and playing on various OTT platform, according to them they haven't made any money on a film that was made under Rs 18 Crore. And then they actually, once few years back asked me to make a part 3." In another tweet, he wrote: "Anyways, that's how most studios work here. The only studio that has consistently send us reports on the business of the films is/was UTV." Read Anurag Kashyap's tweets here.
Gangs Of Wasseypur series featured Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Huma Qureshi, Manoj Bajpayee, Rajkummar Rao, Reema Sen, Pankaj Tripathi among many others.
Richa Chadha, in her blog on Friday, wrote about how veteran actors like Parveen Babi, AK Hangal and Bhagwan Dada were left destitute in their "final years" because of the absence of royalty system in Bollywood. She added: "I am aware my desire to see all credited departments get their due in terms of royalty is the most unrealistic dream. It just will not happen, at least not in my lifetime. But since structures all around us are crumbling, perhaps we can build anew from the rubble."
