Screenplay and acting?

How much do people get paid in departments like screenplay, direction, and acting in Telugu film industry?

• Please mention high/low/average, if you can.

• Answer:

  I will address the actors first. There really is no standard although there are union minimums, which ensure a working actor will be able to live decently, but this is for extras!  Extras (respectfully called "Junior Artistes") are paid around Rs.400/day, with additional bonuses for donning a uniform, getting sprayed with colour, having to fall down, or having to do something specific that stands out from the crowd. Actors with speaking roles and with some acting to do won't ever be paid anything less than Rs.1000/day (in television, which is the steady income model).  Feature films can usually do better, and there are pure plug in comedy actors who can command as much as Rs.5,00,000 a day! As for the big stars: http://www.worldlistmania.com/top-10-telugu-actors-salary/ Directors' salaries depend entirely on the scale of the films and the budget, and their own stardom.  Top directors are likely to draw salaries between 4 Cr. and 8 Cr. rupees.  A director of a film made for a budget of about 3 Cr. is likely to be paid about Rs.10-15 lakhs depending on how much success he's had recently. Writers get paid a pittance.  There is virtually no concept of script sales to production houses because of this lousy culture of never respecting writers.  If you want to make money with your wonderful story, you would either have to sell it to a director or to an actor, for which you may or may not get paid.  If you get a good deal and get paid, you'd be lucky to see about Rs.2 lakhs. (Rs2,00,000).  That's right.  The writer of the entire story is paid less than a comedy actor gets for a one day gig! That said, if you are able to write the entire screenplay yourself, and are able to rope in a star, then you can command much higher, but you have to pitch yourself as a writer who wants to direct or have a director who is ready to take this forward.  In the best case scenario, a feature writer would be paid about Rs.10,00,000 purely for writing.  Very often, the screenplay won't have dialogues, or will simply have suggestions, and then a "dialogue" writer will come in and pump it up, according to which star likes what kind of dialogue!  It's ridiculous, but the stars are dumb enough to have favourite dialogue writers who can up their image, and thereby help them look and feel the same in any role they play!