We then subtracted the budget (which includes the upfront compensation for actors) for each film to derive net revenue.

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We then subtracted the budget (which includes the up-front compensation for actors) for each film to derive net revenue.

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To determine payback figures, we first calculated the movie's gross income by subtracting the movie's budget (excluding the actor's compensation) from half of each film's worldwide box office (to roughly approximate the studio's cut of each ticket).

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"The film makers have agreed to pay 2.5m rupees as compensation, " Muthulakshmi's lawyer Sanjay Hegde told the BBC, describing it as a "binding agreement".

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After that, the actor's total compensation (upfront pay plus any money earned from sharing in the film's profits) was divided into the gross income to get the actor's payback figure for the film.

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While there is no question that allowing consumers to download a popular movie without compensation is unfair, the same might not be said for an unpopular film.

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