'I was signed in movie with salary of...': India star, who also directed short films, shockingly reveals 42x pay gap

Hindustan Times

12 hours ago

It has been an arduous journey thus far for India cricketer Varun Chakaravarthy on the international stage. Having impressed the selectors with his mystery bowling in the IPL, he was announced as a surprise pick ahead of Yuzvendra Chahal for the 2021 T20 World Cup. But he failed to validate the selection. An injury concern after the heartbreaking group-stage exit for India, left him on the sidelines and subsequently dropped out of reckoning. Four years later, he resurfaced, once again with his performance in the IPL, and also in the domestic tournament, and this time, he repaid the faith of the BCCI selectors as Varun played a key role in helping India clinch the Champions Trophy earlier this year in Dubai. Varun Chakaravarthy was part of India's Champions Trophy squad
However, it wasn't an easy task even to make it as a cricketer for Varun. Opening up to the legendary Ravichandran Ashwin on his YouTube show 'Kutti stories with Ash', the 33-year-old revealed that he ventured into various job prospects, including playing the guitar in the church choir and even directing short films, until he stumbled upon his passion for cricket.
The Kolkata Knight Riders star said that he started out as an architect right after college but left the job a year later to "rekindle my love for music" before running out of passion. He returned to architecture, this time opening his firm, but lost all his savings when Cyclone Vardha struck.
"Right after I completed college, I was working in an architectural company for one and a half years as an assistant architect. I started with around 14k a month, and it was 18k around the time I left. After I left that job, for a brief stint, I took up guitar as I wanted to rekindle my love for music. But soon I realised that if you want to pursue some art, the love has to come from within. If your goal is to please others or get attention from others, it is never going to work out. I was never able to practice guitar for more than an hour. I realised it only after 6-8 months, and then I decided to stop. Then I decided to start my own firm in interior design and construction. It went well for a year until Cyclone Vardha happened, and I lost all my investment. So that ended as well. I was around 24-25 then," he said.
Varun then wanted to test his passion as an Assistant Director after regularly visiting film sets with his friends. He even acted as a junior artist in a movie, where he was paid INR 600 per day.
"Some of my friends were part of the film industry, and I started seeing a lot of movies and accompanying them to shoots to observe what was happening. I started talking to the guys, and I came to know that they are shooting for a movie called Jeeva in many cricket grounds. I went there with the intention of becoming an Assistant Director, but that didn't work out. I couldn't even make a proper pitch. Then one of the ADs asked me if I played cricket. I said, 'Only tennis-ball cricket.' So then I got to act in this movie, where I was signed as a junior artist with a salary of INR 600 per day. And that was pretty helpful at that time," he said.
Ashwin interrupted him to ask his current daily allowance as a cricketer, and the India star shockingly revealed a 42x pay gap. "I get 300 USD (INR 25652.78)," he said, leaving Ashwin smiling.
Varun further revealed that his love for movies even led him to direct a few short films, which, albeit, are no longer available for streaming on YouTube, while playing tennis-ball cricket on weekends. "The shoot went for 20 days and I liked the entire process. Then I started writing a few stories, scripts, but when I pitched to a few guys, I realised that I was getting the emotions right, but I wasn't able to translate them as a screenplay. I directed a few short films."
The right-arm spinner, who picked nine wickets during the Champions Trophy campaign, is likely to return to action when the white-ball fixtures begin for India later in the summer with the tour of Bangladesh in August.