Actor Lakshmi Manchu recently chipped in on the conversation around star entourage in the Indian film industry. With Anurag Kashyap and Karan Johar making their stance clear, Lakshmi commented in an interview with the Indian Express that there were ‘too many unnecessary people’ on sets these days. 

‘Way too many people here unlike Hollywood’

Lakshmi claimed in the interview that Hollywood actors ‘pull their own chairs’ and in contrast, even the makeup and hair people in India have assistants. “I am like, kyu chahiye itne log (who do you need so many people). Each actor brings four to five people who have nothing to do on set. The makeup artist has an assistant, the hair person has an assistant, even the spot boy has an assistant. What is going on?”

She compared it to the time her father Mohan Babu was new to the film industry. “We didn’t have a caravan, we used to look for bushes. Now, even in the middle of nowhere we have a beautiful caravan. However, there are a lot of similarities in the passion and love they have for cinema. I also feel the care for each artist is different in Hollywood,” she said, pointing out that Hollywood doesn’t care if you’re a big or small actor.

Lakshmi was recently seen in the Disney+ Hotstar series Yakshini.

Anurag Kashyap and Karan Johar on star entourage

In an interview with Janice Sequeira, Anurag Kashyap said, “The most ridiculous demand is that there's some chef who charges ₹2 lakh per day to make food that looks like… ye khana hai ya birdfeed. Itna chhota sa aata tha. Health ka tha thoda problem. Main sirf yehi khata hu (is this food or birdfeed? It used to be so small. The actor had some health issue. They claimed it's the only thing they eat).”

Karan Johar also spoke to the Indian Express, stating that the stars need to review their fees, differing from Anurag on the topic, “The entourage cost is the least of our worries. It’s the main remuneration of the actors that has to be looked into. It’s very critical for all the actors to understand exactly how the times are, how the climate of our movies are, how tough and difficult it is to manoeuvre through making a motion picture of any magnitude or size.”