Veteran actor Sudhir Pandey, who has appeared in TV shows like Amanat, Sasural Genda Phool, and others, in a recent interview with podcaster Siddharth Kannan, opened up about the TV industry, exposing the mafia, 18-hour shifts, payment issues, and more.
During the conversation with Siddharth Kannan while discussing the television world, he shared that the arrival of private channels was like a savior for actors like him, and he even accepted that during that time he used to do B- and C-grade films for money.
However, he emphasized that when serials arrived, and he got 7 to 8 serials, highlighting that they could do weekly, everything has changed with daily soaps now; one cannot do anything else.
Sudhir shared that while being committed to a daily soap with a good character, if you wish to do a film, you cannot because the maker of the show won’t leave you.
Mentioning the wrong things and deterioration in the television world, Sudhir shared that there are two sections—high-grade actors, like if a lead hero or heroine is famous, they throw tantrums so the channel and producer listen, while regular actors or character actors, if they even ask to raise their payment, the maker doesn’t listen and they remove them from the project.
The actor even mentioned that the contract is being signed on a per-day basis, but they give the payment after 90 days. Sudhir emphasized that this system has affected actors who do small roles or cameos for a short period, and they do hard work for the whole day, and they too are given payment after 90 days.
Sudhir then concluded that the exploitation happening today should improve, as too much exploitation is going on, mentioning that there are 14-hour, 16-hour, and 18-hour shifts—one doesn’t sleep, and the time arrives to begin the next shift.
