Bharti Singh, Reem Shaikh, Haarsh Limbachiyaa weigh in on shrinking budgets for TV shows: ‘Actors are being hired on a monthly salary of Rs 50,000'

Indian Express

5 days ago

Actress Reem Shaikh, who is currently seen on Laughter Chefs Season 2, has been working in the TV industry for the last 15 years. During a recent appearance on Bharti Singh's podcast, Reem spoke about the ongoing budget constraints in the television industry and highlighted how actors today are being paid significantly less. Haarsh Limbachiyaa also spoke about how the market has gotten very bad, and today, big-budget shows are not being made.
On the podcast, Reem said, 'Having a set in Filmcity is a privilege now. No outdoor schedules happen anymore, and no one is willing to have a set before Naigaon, which takes four hours to travel to and fro.'Adding to this, Haarsh said, 'Very few big shows like Laughter Chef are being made today. Budgets have reduced. I am seeing such a big show after 3-4 years. Now it feels like TV is struggling. It is on a down curve.'
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Reem Shaikh continued, 'After I did Raabta, I did two shows back-to-back on Colors. After these three major shows, I thought I had come into the category where I would get paid Rs 1.5 to 2 lakhs per day. This is still a small amount. These amounts were paid to actors per day 15 years back. I thought if not that much, something around that. But sadly, the budget is not even close to these figures. After working so hard for 15 years, delivering so much work, the budgets are still not there. As a child artist, I wasn't paid much, and now that I am an adult, budgets have been cut down.'
Haarsh Limbachiyaa recalled the time he was mind-blown to learn that actress Shweta Tiwari was paid Rs 1 lakh per day for Kasautii Zindagi Kay. Sharing her opinion, Bharti Singh said, 'Budgets are cut and more work is expected.' Reem Shaikh added, 'Knowing my body of work, people assume that since I have been earning since childhood, I must have made lots of properties by now, but that's not the fact. Now, when our turn to earn that money has come, the entire situation has only changed.'
Haarsh also revealed how he and Bharti have been living off loans. 'We face a similar problem. Seeing me host a show on one channel and Bharti host a show on another channel, people think I would be charging Rs 20 lakhs per day, Bharti would be getting Rs 50 lakhs per day. That's not true. We are surviving on loans, and if we don't take the work that comes to us, somebody else will.' Bharti quipped, 'We are so much on loans that even when the milkman comes, we think an agent has come to take the loan back.'
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Haarsh went on to share, 'Only the perception is big now. I come across videos of the fees actors get paid for these reality shows. It said Krushna gets Rs 35 lakhs. I called Krushna asking to give me some money if he earned so much. This has become a big problem, and budgets have been brutally slashed. Production houses, cameramen all are suffering. Directors, technicians, and producers everyone say that the market is very bad. In a situation like this, even artiste slash their fees. Which is why we chose to make videos on YouTube. Earlier, when we would look for a lead for a show, their per-day budget at the start was Rs 5000.'
Listening to this, Reem Shaikh revealed that now actors get monthly salaries. She said, 'Budgets are affected in the industry only; everything else is getting expensive. Now, a new trend that has begun on TV is that instead of per day, you get paid monthly. Actors are hired for Rs 50000 monthly. Then they can make you work for 22 days or 30 days, and you are paid monthly. Actors who don't have a side income through social media do suffer then.'