Recently, Arshad Warsi opened up about how Boney Kapoor 's production house had underpaid him when, ironically, he had helped them cut down on a few bucks. Sharing an anecdote of his experience of being exploited in film circles, Arshad shared a story from the time when he used to work as a choreographer on the film Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja. He remembered that he had been asked to do four days' work in three days to help out with budget constraints, and he had delivered what was asked of him.
He, however, was remunerated less than the agreed compensation. Arshad said, “The movie was done, and Pankaj Parasher had been called to do a song. I was choreographing plays and ad films at the time, but Pankaj told Boney Kapoor that he wants me to do the song, so I agreed.
” In an interaction with the Unfiltered by Samdish YouTube channel, Arshad spoke about this enormous gap between the remuneration received by the A-list stars and other people associated with the industry. He further added that this is not quite fair; it is very damaging and must stop. However, he went on to say that personally, he keeps himself away from all this and believes in the philosophy of 'live and let live'.
He continued, “A production guy asked me how much I’ll charge, and I told him Rs 1 lakh is my going rate. He asked me how long I’ll take, and I told him four days at the very least. He requested me to finish the song sooner, because shooting for four days would increase costs.
I told him I’ll try my best, and we worked very hard to get the song done, but we finished in three days. I thought that the production would be happy. I went to get my cheque, and they gave me Rs 75,000.
I said, ‘I just saved you an entire day’s shoot, you should pay me more!’ He said, ‘No, for four days it’s Rs 1 lakh, and for three days it’s Rs 75,000’.” Arshad said that he only spoke to the production guy, and that he never spoke to Boney Kapoor about it. “I don’t think Boney Kapoor knows about it also,” he said,.
“We have contracts now, everything is written down. There are lawyers and managers now,” he said. About assistants on film sets still being paid less, Arshad said that they often come with the purpose of gaining experience, as opposed to making money.
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