Pooja Hegde hikes remuneration for Suriya 44 despite poor box office performance

Pooja Hegde is currently one of the top actresses in South India, despite back-to-back disasters. She is set to return to the Tamil film industry with Suriya's new movie directed by Karthik Subbaraj temporarily named Suriya 44. This will be her first Tamil film in over two years, her last being Beast with Thalapathy Vijay. Suriya 44 will be her first project with both Suriya and Karthik Subbaraj.

Recently, it was reported that Pooja Hegde had increased her fee for this movie. Previously, she charged Rs 3.5 crore per film, but for Suriya 44, she has raised it to Rs 4 crore. However, there has been no official confirmation of this change.

There has been much anticipation about the collaboration between director Karthik Subbaraj and actor Suriya. On March 28th, Karthik Subbaraj officially announced on social media that he would be working with Suriya on his next project. This will be their first time working together.

The filmmakers have kept details about Suriya 44 mostly under wraps. They have only revealed the working title, Suriya 44 and a tagline: Love, Laughter and War. Recently, they shared the film's first shot, showing Suriya overlooking the ocean in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

On June 1st, the producers announced the film's star-studded cast, including Jayaram, Karunakaran, Joju George, Pooja Hegde and Suriya. The movie is being produced by Stone Bench Films in collaboration with 2D Entertainment. Shreyaas Krishna is the cinematographer, and Shafique Mohammed Ali is the editor. Santhosh Narayanan, a frequent collaborator with Karthik Subbaraj, will compose the music.