How Salman Khan became 'TV's highest paid star': His massive payday for Bigg Boss 18 decoded
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Not a long time ago, ₹100 crore was the benchmark for a film's good box office performance. As inflation grew, it became the budget of big Indian films, and soon enough, superstar were (reportedly) charging this amount as fees for their bigger films. Today, even television can get you that much money, and that too, in little over a month. If reports are to be believed, Bollywood superstar Salman Khan will rake in this much money in just six weeks, hosting the new season of Bigg Boss.
Salman Khan's massive payday for Bigg Boss 18
Bigg Boss 18 begins airing on Colors TV on Sunday, October 6. While the first images of the Bigg Boss house have been unveiled, the contestants' names for the popular reality show remain a guarded secret. There are speculations, but the makers, like every year, will officially release the name only live on TV. Another detail that is just as heavily guarded is Salman's remuneration for the show. A recent report by Her Zindagi claimed that Salman is charging ₹60 crore per month to host Bigg Boss this season.
Sources close to the production tell HT that the star has indeed hiked his remuneration from last season but his fees is a combination of per episode fees and a lump sum contract amount. The final figure does come close to the ₹60 crore per month quoted in reports. Sources say that if the season goes on for 15 weeks as in the previous season, the actor is set to earn close to ₹250 crore, a staggering amount.
How Salman became 'TV's biggest star'
Salman Khan has been the host of Bigg Boss for a decade-and-a-half, becoming almost synonymous with the show. It is hard to imagine anyone else in his place, but the show did begin with Arshad Warsi and then Amitabh Bachchan as hosts before Salman came on board. In recent years, whenever he has dropped out of hosting duties - sometimes to fight court cases, other times to fulfil film shoot obligations - the show sees a dip in the ratings
The message from the audience is clear - Salman is the driving force behind the show. Yes, the concept, the drama, and the celebs do get eyeballs, but Salman holds it all together, like the perfect sutradhar he is. That is why, each year, the makers of Bigg Boss are willing to pay him more.
The fact that his stardom in films has not diminished all this while helps his cause as well. Trade insiders say that Salman was earning somewhere between ₹5 and ₹10 crore per film when he began hosting Bigg Boss 15 years ago. Today, he can earn as much as ₹150 crore per film. Given that a typical Bigg Boss season takes up a good one-third of his calendar year, the star demands similar fees here.
That makes him the biggest name on television. Nobody even comes close. Rupali Ganguly, the highest-paid actor on TV currently, reportedly charges ₹3 lakh per episode for Anupamaa. For a month-period similar to a Bigg Boss season, her earnings would come out to around ₹2 crore.
Kapil Sharma, on the other hand, earned around ₹60 crore for the first season of The Great Indian Kapil Show. Only Amitabh Bachchan is in the same league as Salman through his appearance on Kaun Banega Crorepati. But the octagenarian shoots five episodes per week as compared to Salman's two. His higher workload gets him more money.
Salman Khan has shown no intention to call it quits with Bigg Boss. In a recent promo, he poked fun at himself when a 'future self' said he was shooting Bigg Boss 38. Given the star's popularity and the show's sustaining TRPs, that just may be a possibility. And who knows how much the superstar would be earning by then.
