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| With the onset of daily soaps and the very popular saas-bahu genre (where quantity matters and not quality) TV actors are getting it all, fame, adulation, coverage and most importantly big bucks. Smriti Iraani, Rohit-Ronit Roy, Cezzane Khan, Hiten Tejwani, Gauri Pradhan, Aman Varma, Rajiv Khandelwal and so on, you name them and its out in the open that they have all made a lot of money. "Are saab, 80 per cent of my most expensive items are bought by TV stars today," says Praveenbhai Goradia, owner of a famous electronics showroom in Mumbai. "They have so much of money that they don't even think twice before buying the costliest of items, be it a Plasma TV, Split AC or the most expensive music system," adds Praveenbhai emphasising the fact that TV stars' purchasing power has grown several folds in last couple of years. And commanding that kind of money has surely made life easier and more luxurious for our telly-stars. And so, along with minting money comes the mantra, if you have it, flaunt it! So we have our favourite small screen stars posing with their brand new buys, for the benefit of the media and fans. Narayani Shashtri shows off her new car to the media. The homes and interiors of stars like Deepshikha, Rajshree Takur, Pooja Ghai Rawal and many more get exclusive coverage. And the gym sessions, shopping sprees, beauty care regimes of the likes of Mona Wasu, Rohit Roy and Shonali Malhotra Soni are highlighted. Recently a tabloid reported that Manoj Bohra spends Rs 2 lakh per annum on his fitness regime. That's a royal life! "I think TV stars really deserve what they earn. A TV star like me works round the clock and deserves the money I earn. And ultimately your spending habit encourages you to work and earn more. That way you can spend more," says a defensive Tina Parekh who plays Shruti in Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii. But the question that arises in our mind is, how healthy is this trend of wanting to earn more? Answers Dr Sachchidanand, "A career in acting is very insecure. Everyday more and more new actors with better talent are coming in. Today you are in and tomorrow you will be out. This feeling of 'blink and you're gone' pushes actors to work beyond their capacity and earn as much as they can. And once you make money, it's but obvious that it will reflect in your lifestyle." And it's the desire for an improved lifestyle that has seen our actors moving from a small flat to sprawling four-bedroom plus apartments. Latest models of flashy cars, best of the gizmos like I-pods, mobile handsets, laptops etc are the flavours of the day. But then like everything, there is a flipside to this too. Till the time a star's show is on-air and he/she is working 25-30 days in a month its ok because they are minting money. But the day their serial goes off-air, all the income stops while expenses and more importantly monthly installments continue to make a hole in the pocket. "The new breed of actors don't understand that their income is not permanent. If they have bought a flat for Rs 50 lakh and spend Rs 20 lakh on the interior, you will find that most of the amount has been taken as a loan from banks and they don't even think twice about how they are going to pay back," says Kiran Karmarkar (Om of Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii) who believes that the money needs to be saved and invested very carefully. "Veteran stars like Kanwaljeet, Mangal Dhillon have managed their finances well and thus can enjoy their money in the future also. It's just a few new stars who might be earning Rs 3 to 4 lakh per month and spending the same on leading a lavish lifestyle. I think this is foolish and it could just happen that at a certain stage they might completely vanish from the TV just because of their stupid spending habits," Kiran adds further. That wisdom comes only with experience. New actors fail to understand the the concept of 'saving for a rainy day. Says Praveenbhai, the electronic shop owner, "These people (actors) purchase electronics from us on installments, but in most of the cases, their cheques start bouncing after a few months, especially when their serials shut down. Phir to bas, ek hi rasta bachta hai, gali do aur samaan uthake le aao (Then we are left with only one option, abuse them and get the goods picked up)." That's quite humiliating. But then our stars don't seem to care. Sai Deodhar Anand of Saara Akash fame gets defensive when asked to comment this trend. "I feel whatever the TV stars are doing is fine. After all everyone deserves to live their life the way they want. If a TV star is working round the clock and working on 10 to 12 scenes in a day then he/she has the complete freedom to do anything with his/ her money. It's true that nowadays TV stars have become more popular. But behind this success is their hard work and they very much deserve it all the money they earn." And this seems to be the attitude of most of the TV actors today. They find it quite strange why people even have to ask them why are they showing off their possessions. Like Tina Parekh who says when a film star buys a dog and it becomes news, why not her holiday plans? While the older breed of actors like Kiran Karmarkar feel that the younger lot show off their stuff to get publicity, the current stars blame the media whom they believe are unnecessarily hyping up such stories. "It's very wrong to create hype about TV stars. It's just the media, which likes to publicise such stuff. After all like films, every newspaper has a separate column for television and they fill the columns with whatever they want to write. And why can't TV stars lead their life the way they want to," asks Vikas Sethi who started out his career with a disastrous film called Oops, but is a known name in TV today. While our hunks and babes are unanimous in their opinion, the so-called buddhus appear to be wiser. "I think people who spend their money just to show off are not sensible. Only foolish people can do such things. As for me, I do not like to show off. I never had any problem in handling my money," says Gaurav Gera who plays a dumb guy Nandu in Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin. Different people have different opinions, views and approaches, but the bottomline is, no one seems to be complaining till the time stars are entertaining them on-air, as well as off it. (Sampurn) |
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