Salman Khan’s Bigg Boss 18 Paycheck: Decoding TV’s Highest Paid Star’s Earnings

Salman Khan Bigg Boss 18 salary

Salman Khan’s Bigg Boss 18 Paycheck: Not so long ago ₹100 crore was the benchmark for a film’s success. As inflation grew it became the budget of big Indian films and soon enough superstars were (reportedly) taking this much as fees for their big films.

Today you can get this much money for your television and that too in just over a month. If reports are to be believed Bollywood superstar Salman Khan will get this much in just 6 weeks hosting Bigg Boss.

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Bigg Boss 18 starts on Colors TV on Sunday, October 6. While the first look of the Bigg Boss house is out, the contestants names are still under wraps. There are rumors but the makers like every year will officially reveal the names only on TV. Another secret that is as big as the contestants names is Salman’s remuneration for the show. A recent report by Her Zindagi said Salman is charging ₹60 crore per month for Bigg Boss this season.

Sources close to the production tell HT that yes he has hiked his fees 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 if the season goes on for 15 weeks as in the previous season he will earn close to ₹250 crore, a huge amount.

Salman Khan has been hosting Bigg Boss for over a decade and a half and has become synonymous with the show. It’s 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, sometimes to fulfill film shoot obligations - the show sees a dip in the ratings.

The message from the audience is clear - Salman is the backbone of the show. Yes, the concept, the drama and the celebs get the eyeballs but Salman holds it all together, like the perfect sutradhar he is. That is why every year the makers of Bigg Boss are willing to pay him more.

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The fact that his film stardom hasn’t diminished over the years helps his case as well. Trade insiders say that Salman was earning between ₹5-10 crore per film when he started hosting Bigg Boss 15 years ago. Today he can earn up to ₹150 crore per film. Given that a typical Bigg Boss season takes up a good one-third of his calendar year, he demands similar fees here.

So he is the biggest on TV. Nobody comes even close. Rupali Ganguly the highest paid actor on TV currently charges ₹3 lakh per episode for Anupamaa. For a month period similar to a Bigg Boss season her earnings would be around ₹2 crore.

Kapil Sharma 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 octogenarian shoots 5 episodes a week as compared to Salman’s 2. His higher workload gets him more money.

Salman Khan is not done with Bigg Boss yet. In a recent promo he joked about himself when a ‘future self’ said he was shooting Bigg Boss 38. Given his popularity and the show’s TRPs that just might be possible. And who knows how much he would be earning by then.

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