Jul 19, 2026 4:00pm IST
Manasi Parekh on Rising Production Costs: ‘Farah Khan said, ‘We spend the cost of your entire film on one song’’ (EXCLUSIVE)
“Laalo,” the October 2025 Gujarati release, set an example for the Gujarati film industry. Made on a budget of around ₹50 lakh, it earned an impressive ₹120 crore at the box office. Actor Manasi Parekh, who is one of its producers under the banner of Soul Sutra, talks exclusively to Variety India about the double-edged sword that is production budgeting and where she stands as a creator and performer.
About actors’ demands and the rising production costs, Parekh believes there’s a fair distribution of accounts in the regional content industries. “Thankfully, Marathi and Gujarati industries don't face that question. We literally work with their bare minimum resources. Regional industries don't have the same bandwidth as the Hindi film industry does.” Recalling how, in the past, on being approached by a Hindi filmmaker for the remake of the horror comedy drama “Jhamkudi,” the budget went up tenfold. She reveals, “When Farah Khan visited our home recently, she said, ‘We spend the cost of your entire film on one song’.”
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She adds that actors in the Gujarati or Marathi film industry don’t have the same luxuries they would have on a Hindi film set. She points out that Hindi “is a bigger language; there's widespread distribution, and there's a bigger audience.”
The 40-year-old is aware of the discussion in the business about the rising costs. “I feel that the boundaries of how much is too much are kind of getting blurred. And people are feeling that pinch. Even the biggest of producers, the biggest of production houses, are talking about this now. So I think they should learn from the regional industries.”
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She also thinks that small projects like “Udaan” would not have been released theatrically today but would have been taken to OTT instead. She attributes the success of “Laapataa Ladies” and “12th Fail” to their big backing.
Her production house recently announced the release of its two upcoming projects, “Mitrata” and “Adbhoot,” with the former bringing back Viraj Gehlani following their collaboration with him on “Jhamkudi” and the latter having her join forces with Marathi star Swapnil Joshi.
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