Indian television actors paying the ‘price’ of being seniors

Most television actors who’ve been ruling the small screen for the last few years now hardly have any takers. And it’s got nothing to do with their lack of efficiency. Instead, the problem is with their salaries. Due to the hefty pay cheques of most senior actors, production houses are shying away from them. They opt for fresh faces to keep production costs in check.

Channel sources say senior actors demand anything between Rs50,000 to Rs1.5 lakh per day while the newcomers are happy with a salary of Rs15,000 per day. A TV producer says on condition of anonymity, “We shoot five days a week for 10-15 hours everyday. Our budget for the lead actor is around Rs4-5 lakh per month. That means we can pay him/her about Rs1 lakh per week. Given the rising costs, that’s the most we can afford.”

According to another channel head, now that most production workers are receiving higher salaries after they stalled shooting for a while last year, the axe has fallen on the channels. “Our production budgets have increased because the salaries of everybody behind the camera have gone up. If we can pay our production crew by eliminating just a senior actor from the cast, isn’t that the best way out?” asks the channel head.

Actor Hiten Tejwani admits his fees are acting as a deterrent to his career. “Most production houses say they are keen to take me but they cannot afford me. This is not the case only with me but with a lot of other established actors as well,” he says.

The only way out for these actors is reality shows because they still bank on star power for TRPs and hence are ready to pay the high fees.