Bigg Boss hosts and their fees: From Salman Khan to Sourav Ganguly, how much the faces of the franchise earn

Bigg Boss may be built around contestants, confrontations and the promise of unpredictable drama, but the people welcoming viewers into the house have become some of the franchise's biggest commercial assets.

Bigg Boss: The various hosts and their paychecks

Salman Khan remains the most recognisable face of Bigg Boss in Hindi. He took over as host with Season 4 and has remained at the centre of the show's identity ever since, turning the weekend episodes into an event of their own.

According to remuneration figures reported by Variety India, Salman earns around ₹200 crore for a full season and currently commands ₹15 crore or more for every weekend. The reported numbers underline the scale of his association with the franchise, although host remuneration is generally not officially disclosed by the broadcaster or production companies. Other recent reports have also placed Salman among the highest-paid personalities associated with the various Bigg Boss editions.

Sourav Ganguly, who is hosting Bigg Boss Bangla Season 3, is reported to have a package worth more than ₹125 crore, making his deal one of the most eye-catching among the current crop of hosts. The former India cricket captain has brought a different kind of celebrity appeal to the franchise, particularly as JioStar expands Bigg Boss across languages simultaneously.

Vijay Sethupathi, who took over Bigg Boss Tamil after Kamal Haasan, is reportedly paid between ₹3 crore and ₹4 crore per weekend. Variety India estimated his season earnings at around ₹75 crore to ₹80 crore.

For the Telugu edition, Nagarjuna's reported remuneration has grown significantly since he began hosting in 2019. His fee, according to the report, rose from around ₹10 crore when he first took charge to nearly ₹35 crore in 2025.

Mohanlal, meanwhile, has been synonymous with Bigg Boss Malayalam from the beginning. Variety India reported that the actor earns close to ₹30 crore per season and spends around 20 days shooting for the programme.

Kiccha Sudeep's reported remuneration for Bigg Boss Kannada is around ₹20 crore, with his fee said to work out at roughly ₹2 crore for a weekend episode.

The numbers vary between reports and remain largely unconfirmed by the stars themselves, but together they illustrate a larger shift. Bigg Boss is no longer a format anchored primarily in Hindi television. It has become a multi-language entertainment property that depends heavily on the individual relationship between each host and their regional audience.

JioStar expands regional Bigg Boss

This year, that scale has become even more visible.

JioStar has brought six editions — Hindi, Bangla, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam — under one expansive franchise push, with Salman Khan, Sourav Ganguly, Vijay Sethupathi, Nagarjuna, Kiccha Sudeep and Mohanlal leading the respective versions. The simultaneous multi-language strategy represents one of the biggest expansions in the show's Indian history.

The commercial response has been equally significant.

JioStar said more than 95 sponsors have signed up across the six editions this season, spanning categories ranging from consumer durables and automobiles to jewellery, food, personal care, retail, e-commerce and real estate. Major names include HUL, Britannia, Asian Paints, Maruti Suzuki, Godrej Consumer Products, Hero MotoCorp and Mondelez India, alongside a long list of national and regional advertisers.

JioStar said more than half of advertiser participation in the southern markets comes from first-time advertisers, while 70 per cent of Hindi advertisers are also first-time associations.

Bigg Boss is owned and produced by Banijay Asia and EndemolShine India, according to JioStar.

For a franchise built on watching people live together under surveillance, its business model has clearly grown far beyond the house. The hosts are marquee names. The brands are lining up. And across six languages, Bigg Boss has become one of Indian television's most valuable reality entertainment properties.