Would Haq Have Been Cheaper Without Emraan Hashmi?

Mumbai, November 11, 2025: The courtroom drama Haq, starring Emraan Hashmi and Yami Gautam, has just finished its first weekend in cinemas. The film, inspired by the Shah Bano case, has a reported budget of around ₹40-45 crore.

This budget is considered high for a social drama that is not a mainstream action movie. It leads to a big question in the industry:

**Would Haq have been cheaper without Emraan Hashmi?**

The short answer is yes, it would have been cheaper in terms of direct cost. But the trade-off would have been a much lower opening day and weaker deals for its non-theatrical rights.

The Cost Factor: Emraan Hashmi’s Fee

The biggest component of a film’s budget is the actors’ salaries. Emraan Hashmi, being the male lead and a known face, commands a high fee.

The Salary Estimate: According to various media reports, Emraan Hashmi typically charges around ₹6 crore for a movie. Some reports even speculate his fee for Haq was as high as ₹12 crore, though ₹6-8 crore is a more reliable base estimate for his current rate.
Budget Breakdown: If we take the film’s budget as ₹45 crore, and we assume Emraan Hashmi’s fee was around ₹7 crore (a mid-range estimate), his salary alone makes up about 15% to 17% of the film’s total cost.
The Simple Math: Without Emraan Hashmi, the budget would have immediately dropped by this amount. If a lesser-known but talented actor had been cast, the film’s budget could have been reduced by ₹5-7 crore instantly.

So, purely from a production cost standpoint, the film was definitely more expensive because of its star.

The Trade-Off: Where Star Power Earns Money

While the star fee makes the film costlier, star power also gives a project a financial safety net. The producers of Haq needed Emraan Hashmi for two crucial reasons:

Opening Day Collections (The Start):
- Haq opened to a modest ₹1.75 crore on Day 1. This opening, though not massive, was necessary for the film to survive.
- A film with only Yami Gautam (who is a strong actress but still building her box office pull) and a newcomer male lead might have opened to much lower numbers, perhaps less than ₹1 crore.
- Emraan Hashmi’s star pull ensured a minimum audience showed up on Friday. This first-day collection was the foundation that allowed the film’s positive word-of-mouth to spread and achieve a 100% jump on Saturday.
Non-Theatrical Rights (The Safety):
- Before the film was even released, the producers sold the OTT, Satellite, and Music rights. These sales secure a large part of the budget.
- Emraan Hashmi’s presence increases the value of the OTT and Satellite rights significantly. Streaming platforms and TV channels pay more for a movie with a recognized star’s face. Without him, the sales price for these rights would have been much lower. This difference in sale price could have been even larger than his fee.

The Verdict: A Necessary Investment?

Haq needs to cross about ₹25 crore in box office collections to be declared a financially safe venture (excluding non-theatrical revenues). The film is currently nearing the ₹10 crore mark in its opening weekend.

The choice to cast Emraan Hashmi was an expensive insurance policy. It made the film budget high, but it also guaranteed a minimum opening and a higher price for its digital rights. For a serious, non-massy courtroom drama like Haq, having a recognizable face like Emraan Hashmi was a necessary step. It made the film costlier, but it also made it viable.

Without him, the film might have been cheaper to make, but it could have easily been lost and forgotten. The star power ensured the film got the attention it needed to let the good content eventually speak for itself.