‘Television actors deserve to be paid more than film stars’

Working with Imtiaz Ali, SRK and Anushka was a rare chance for me... It feels bad that the film you worked so hard for, didn’t do well, and no one will even notice my performance CHANDAN ROY SANYAL, ACTOR

From judging reality shows to promoting his films on daily soaps, actor Akshay Kumar has been frequent on the small screen and believes TV actors work harder than film stars and deserve a better pay package. The 50-year-old says TV artists have to continuously be on their toes and deliver their best in a short span of time. “I admire TV artists more than people from my industry as their job is hard. We (film actors) don’t do one fourth of the hard work that television actors do. I respect them a lot. They work much harder and I feel they should be paid more (than the film stars), or at least what we get. “They have to read 12-15 pages of script, which is given to them minutes back from the writer. But what will a writer do in this as he has orders from (his bosses) and change things. Everything happens so fast, they (writers) think on the spot and change things,” says Akshay. The Toilet: Ek Prem Katha star says he closely saw how TV actors work hard endlessly, while he went on film promotions on the small screen. “Television is not easy as you work continuously. There are several cameras monitoring you. I have learnt to admire people who work on television shows, be it the artist or other team members. We film actors don’t value things,” he says. Without naming any show, Akshay reveals his mother is an ardent fan of some TV serials. “My mother watches lot of shows. She is glued to television, she doesn’t watch films with so much interest as she sees television shows.” After Khatron Ke Khiladi, Master Chef and Dare to Dance, the National Awardwinning actor now returns to television with a comedy show as a judge. Akshay is upbeat about it because he is a huge fan of the comedy genre.