Once India's highest-paid TV actor, this star once lived in his car, battled homelessness and used public washrooms before turning it all around.
Television has been a high-paying industry for a couple of decades now. After the cable boom in the mid-90s, TV shows began to get more expensive and grander. This resulted in actors becoming stars and commanding good remuneration. While TV actors get way less pay than their film counterparts in India, they still rake in the moolah. One such actor made the switch from films to TV in the 90s and became the highest-paid TV actor in the country soon. But this was after a series of missteps had left him nearly destitute.
When Ronit Roy was India’s highest-paid TV actor
In the early 2000s, when Ronit Roy signed on to shows like Kasautii Zindagi Kay and Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, he became one of the most sought-after television stars of the country. As per a Times of India report, Ronit was charging as much as s 50,000 per episode in the mid-2000s, making him the highest-paid TV actor in the country. After the conclusion of the daily soaps aound 2010, Ronit found a second wave of success with the courtroo drama Adaalat.
Ronit Roy’s years of struggle
But before he ventured into television, Ronit had been a film actor. He made his acting debut with Jaan Tere Naam in 1992 but did not find much success despite appearing in big films like Army. By the late-90s, his career in films had hit a virtual standstill. In an interview with Lehren Retro recently, Ronit admitted his life spiralled out of control due to excessive drinking and bad financial decisions. “Nobody helped me, asked me, ‘Is there food in your house? Do you even have a house?’ I didn’t even have a house for the longest time, I was living in a car! I had one big suitcase, it used to be in the boot of my car and all my clothes were in it. Because I had to leave the place where I was earlier living as I didn’t have money to pay rent. I could not go back to someone’s house and say please let me stay. It is shameful. On and off would use the hotels in Juhu, all the public lavatories to freshen up and go to shoots,” he said.
How Ronit Roy turned it around
In the 90s, Ronit had appeared in a few TV shows but only in single episodes. In 2002, Ekta Kapoor signed him for her new show Kammal. But before that went on air, she cast him in another title called Kasautii Zindagi Kay. The show was a blockbuster success transforming Ronit into a star. The same year, he replaced Amar Upadhyay as Mihir in the already hit show Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi. Suddenly, Ronit went from being an out-of-work film actor to India’s number one TV star. The 2010 release Udaan brought him back into the film scene too. Today, as per media reports, Ronit charges Rs 1.25 lakh per episode for TV shows and up to Rs 1 crore per film.
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