‘You are talking to wrong actors’: Kriti Sanon, Vicky Kaushal say they don’t have large entourages; haven’t seen them first-hand

Vicky Kaushal and Kriti Sanon weighed in on the issue of rising entourage costs. (Photo: Prime Video)

As the years pass, the discussion around rising entourage costs, especially in Hindi cinema, continues to grow. On several occasions, producers have revealed that actors sometimes inflate a film’s budget by traveling with large entourages, at the producer’s expense. This, they argue, contributes to many films struggling to recover costs in a post-pandemic landscape, where the market for certain types of films is already limited. Recently, in a conversation with The Hollywood Reporter India, actors Vicky Kaushal and Kriti Sanon addressed the same issue.

Both agreed that it is a concern, though something they had mostly heard about rather than witnessed first-hand. Vicky clarified, “I think what we’re saying is that we haven’t seen it ourselves. We’re not denying that it isn’t true, I just haven’t seen it, I’ve only heard about it.” Kriti added, “Yeah, we’ve heard about it.” When asked what should be done to keep such costs in check, she was quick to respond, “Maybe you are talking to the wrong actors.”

Vicky further explained his perspective: “Anything that burdens the film financially should be course-corrected. And of course, like Kriti said, there are times when certain incidents happen for the character, for the film. For example, if it’s a 7-to-7 schedule, it’s an action film, and my only time to train is at 5 in the morning, and the gym is in the opposite direction from the location, then having a gym on set probably helps. There’s some setup on set, and it helps the film. So all of that, I feel, and to be very honest, every producer also understands that, at least that’s what I believe.” Vicky also jokingly added, when it was mentioned that stars often travel with dozens of people, adding to costs, “All of a sudden now I’m counting how many people I have come up with.”

Previously, Varun Dhawan, at the trailer launch of Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari had weighed in on the same topic but offered a different perspective: “We can keep blaming actors. Stories and blind items come out, we get trolled. All the muck is thrown on the actors. We need good producers also. They should foster a collaborative, family-like atmosphere on set. If an actor still wants to be arrogant, don’t work with them.”

He added, “I have four people in my entourage. I never get my managers on set, because my father had made this rule that no managers will come on set. On his set, I never took managers, so I can’t do it on others also.”