New Delhi: Even before she decided to find a groom for herself on network television, Rakhi Sawant had become a familiar figure across 80 million Indian households that have access to satellite TV. She had established herself as the queen of controversy-ridden reality shows such as Bigg Boss 1, Nach Baliye 3 and Yeh Hai Jalwa. Rakhi Ka Swayamvar merely reinforced and strengthened this position. The lady and her beau are now busy being parents on another reality show called Pati, Patni aur Woh.
The Bollywood fringe-dweller’s decision to participate in close to 10 reality shows in less than two years is understandable. The performances have allowed her to cast off the “item girl” tag, besides offering a steadier income.
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A senior executive from a leading general entertainment channel (GEC), who has worked with Sawant on one such reality show, says she earns Rs60-80 lakh for a big-budget Rakhi Ka Swayamvar kind of show that lasts 10-13 weeks. In contrast, she stands to earn around Rs20 lakh for an item number—a cameo in a song aimed to increase a movie’s chance of success—that could take four-five days to shoot.
“It’s not easy to get more than two item numbers in a year,” says Manoj Prabhakar, Sawant’s manager.
Sawant is not alone in having made a career out of reality TV. With instant fame and money guaranteed, lesser celebrities have latched on to reality TV as a career option.
“We’re talking about serial reality show participants here, or those who were once big as soap stars, but need to keep their currency alive,” says Siddhartha Basu, chairman and managing director of Synergy Adlabs Media Ltd, a television production firm.
Serial participant: Rakhi Sawant (right) in ’Pati, Patni aur Woh,’ a reality show on NDTV Imagine. She has done around 10 such shows.
Reality TV duo Tanaaz Currim and Bakhtiyar Irani, currently inaccessible since they are participating in
Bigg Boss 3 where they are incarcerated in a house with other participants, have featured on shows such as
Nach Baliye 2 and
Hans Baliye. Soap star Shweta Tiwari—once a regular in soap operas produced by Balaji Telefilms Ltd —has also been focusing on reality TV shows and appeared on
Nach Baliye,
Jhalak Dikhla Jaa and, more recently,
Iss Jungle Se Mujhe Bachao on Sony.
B-listers and models, including Kashmira Shah, Mona Singh and Aditi Govitrikar, have also been on multiple reality shows. An executive at a major production company says networks pay such actors approximately Rs10-12 lakh as a one-time signing bonus for reality shows, an additional Rs2-3 lakh per week for the duration of the show. These actors are also paid for the time they spend rehearsing. Depending on the time such participants last on a show, they end up earning anywhere between Rs15 lakh and Rs30 lakh in less than three months.