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Former Roadies and Bigg Boss winner Ashutosh Kaushik reflected on how his relationship with MTV was soured after he won both reality shows. He said that because he’s illiterate, he didn’t read the contracts that he was presented with, and found himself in a position where he owed MTV 30 percent of his Bigg Boss winnings. He said that he was told to pay Rs 30 lakh out of his Rs 1 crore prize money to MTV, even though the channel was under the same umbrella corporation that owned Bigg Boss.
In an interview with Siddharth Kannan, Ashutosh said that he argued his case, and came to an agreement with the channel through which he would be hired as a VJ, and would receive a monthly salary across two years. But the back-and-forth ruined his relationship with the company. “I won Rs 1 crore for Bigg Boss. MTV demanded Rs 30 lakh out of that amount, saying that’s what I owed them. The contract said that I owed MTV 30% of any earning for a period of two years. I argued that the Rs 1 crore was a gift, and not a salary that I’d earned.”
Ashutosh said that he was paid Rs 25,000 per week for Bigg Boss, the lowest of any contestant, because he didn’t have anybody to negotiate on his behalf. He also said that he tried to reach out to MTV after he’d been approached for Bigg Boss, but nobody helped him. “They weren’t even giving me any managerial advice, or securing jobs for me,” he said. Ashutosh said that he didn’t want to give them the Rs 30 lakh, and things became very unpleasant.
Ultimately, he was given a dummy job as a VJ, for which he was paid Rs 1.5 lakh per month for two years. In the end, he received Rs 27 lakh. He said that he won Rs 2.5 lakh for winning Roadies, but actually had to pay 33% tax to the Hero Honda dealership before he could pick up his bike.
In the same interview, Ashutosh also looked back on his poor relationship with Roadies producer Raghu Ram, whom he accused of being fake. “I’d like to make it clear that I didn’t get along with Raghu. You’ll ask why, and I’ll tell you. When I’d bump into him in Mumbai, he’d be overjoyed and ask me where I’ve been and why I haven’t been in touch. If he was so concerned, couldn’t he have picked up the phone and called me? He doesn’t come across as genuine, he puts it on,” Ashutosh said.
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