Ajith delivered a blockbuster with his last release, Good Bad Ugly, and soon signed his next film with the same director, Adhik Ravichandran. But there has been no update about this project so far. According to industry sources, the film has not taken off due to a mismatch between Ajith’s market value and his remuneration.
Even though the director and the script are ready, the film has not gone on floors because producers are not yet willing to invest. Discussions have taken place with a few Tamil and Telugu producers, and there are also talks with Hindi producers, but no one has been finalized so far.
Ajith’s Next Film Finding It Tough to Secure Producers
The main issue is said to be the huge budget. Tamil Nadu’s leading distributor, Tiruppur Subramaniam, spoke about this in an interview and stated that producers are not ready to invest more than ₹300 crore on an Ajith film because his market does not justify such a large investment.
This argument holds weight. Ajith’s highest-grossing film, Good Bad Ugly, earned around ₹250 crore gross worldwide, with a distributor share of about ₹110–120 crore. Even if his next film achieves similar theatrical business, there is no guarantee that producers can recover the remaining ₹180 crore.
Limitations in other markets are impacting Ajith’s stardom
OTT platforms are currently offering around ₹70–80 crore for films starring major regional actors. Even after adding satellite rights and other revenues, a budget of ₹250 crore itself is risky for producers, making a ₹300 crore budget extremely risky. To recover such a budget, a film would need to collect more than ₹400 crore at the box office.
Ajith has a very strong market in Tamil Nadu and stands on par with Vijay and Rajinikanth in his home state. However, his reach in other Indian markets and languages is much lower compared to theirs. This is the main reason producers are willing to invest ₹400 crore or more in films starring Vijay or Rajinikanth, but hesitate to do the same for Ajith.