Arya, released in 2004, marked the directorial debut of Sukumar. At that time, producer Dil Raju was an upstart. He earmarked a budget of Rs 6 crore for the movie, which was successfully completed within that budget. Visually, Arya was among the most good-looking movies of that time. A couple of songs had vast backdrops (by that era's standards), the music was superlative, the staging looked excellent.
In today's times, if you want to match your movie's visuals to today's standards and audience expectations, a rom-com would take seven or eight times that budget. Today, a music director who delivers a blockbuster album is extremely rare to come by. If someone pulls off DSP's genius-level stuff, that composer would have to be paid upwards of Rs 15 crore (and rightfully so). In recent times, films like Manamey reportedly cost Rs 40 crore. And the film had not a single song that matches even the weakest song from Arya (assuming Arya had any weak songs).
Allu Arjun was just one-film-old at that time. He didn't charge any fee upfront. Allu Aravind sought a share in the collections of Nizam, with the maximum remuneration not exceeding Rs 40 lakh. Bunny's Gangotri was a hit. A hero in today's times, after a single box office hit, wouldn't settle for anything less than a huge upfront fee.
