Akshay Khanna, Bobby Deol and Sanjay Dutt were once heroes, romantic heroes or dependable stars who made films successful on their own. Time passed, box office equations kept changing and all three gradually fell out of the race for main lead actors in films. But no one had imagined how impressive and shocking his second innings would be after giving up his desire to become a hero and stepping into darkness. This is no coincidence. This is a change. How can Bobby Deol’s animal look and acting be forgotten?
Sanjay Dutt who has been mostly seen in villain’s look for the last few years. Examples of which are the characters of Kancha Cheena in Agneepath and Adhira in KGF2. Now Akshay Khanna has also joined this list. Although, in his acting career, he did films like Humraj and Race, in which he played villainous characters, but in his second inning, he is being remembered first with Chhawa and now with Dhurandhar.
Well, today we will not talk about the films of these three artists. Let us talk about their fees. In their first innings, or rather, by playing the role of a hero, these three actors were not earning as much as they are earning by playing the role of a villain now. Now there is a big difference in all the three fees. Along with this, he has also worked to balance the storyline of the film by presenting himself as a dangerous villain in front of a strong hero. Let us also tell you how much these three stars were earning as heroes, now how much their earnings have increased as villains.
Sanjay Dutt’s fees 10 to 15 crores
Recently Sanjay Dutt’s Baaghi 4 was released. Before that, South’s Leo and KGF2 were released. How can Dhurandhar be forgotten? Sanjay Dutt has played the role of villain in all these films. The special thing is that Sanjay Dutt’s fee in all these films has been between Rs 8 to 15 crores. However, in the last 10 to 12 years, he has not only played villain roles. He has also done guest appearances in some films. In which who can forget a film like PK.
His character in Bhoomi was quite positive. His fees in these films were between Rs 5 to 7 crores. Before that he had done Lage Raho Munnabhai. In which he was the lead actor. Even though his character was that of a scoundrel and a goon, it was positive. He got a fee of around Rs 8 crore for this film. Whereas for Kancha Cheena in Agneepath, he was charged a fee of Rs 5 crore. In which he also got a lot of popularity.
Bobby is earning crores by becoming a villain
After giving superhit films like Barsaat, Soldier and Gupt, Bobby Deol’s status in Bollywood was no less than a superstar. Everyone went crazy about Bobby’s dance moves to create his own identity separate from brother Sunny Deol and father Dharmendra. The first person from the Deol family came into films who knew how to dance very well. But with time the films started flopping and Bobby Deol started disappearing from the big screen. He definitely appeared in home production films from time to time, but no production house or director took him in films. After that he started again with a web series named Ashram.
In which his fee was one crore rupees. This series became quite popular. Even before the arrival of this web series, Bobby was charging between 1 to 3 crores in films. His fee in the third series was Rs 5 crore. Then he played a negative character in Race 2. After that came Animal which revived Bobby in films once again. After that he worked with Surya in Kangua in South. His fees in all these films were Rs 5 crores and more. This means that Bobby did not earn as much by becoming a hero in films as he is earning by becoming a villain in films.
Akshaye Khanna, this is just a beginning
It would not be wrong if we say that Akshay Khanna’s range in acting is more than Bobby and Sanjay. He has proved himself on many occasions. Be it the film Border, when he was only 19 or 20 years old. Or the first film of the Race franchise in which he played a negative character. But for many years he did not get such roles in which his acting could be justified. Akshay Khanna may get a chance to play freely. Although Akshay Khanna has been continuously active in films since 2019, but does not do more than one film in a year. From the year 2019 to the year 2022, he worked in more than half a dozen films.
In the year 2019, where he worked in Accidental Prime Minister and Article 375, in the year 2022, his film Drishyam 2 was released. If we talk about his fees, from Hulchul Hungama to Drishyam 2, his fees have been around Rs 2 crore. This means that there has been no significant change in his fees for 20 years. His two films have been released in the year 2025. Akshay has played negative characters in both these films. Aurangzeb in Chhawa and Rehman Dacoit in Dhurandhar. Akshay has received a fee of Rs 2.5 to 3.5 crore for both the films. It is estimated that his fees may increase in the upcoming films.