Guns & Gulaabs actor Varun Badola opens up about facing regular financial difficulties: 'I was almost down...'

Popular television actor Varun Badola, who has worked in the small screen industry for over two decades, opened up about facing regular financial difficulties and challenges to survive in showbiz.

“I work for six months every two years, and then I don’t have work for two years,” the actor said while talking to Siddharth Kannan. “Bankruptcy keeps knocking at my door every few years, and then I have to tell myself to find work quickly. People ask me why I don’t work regularly, but if you notice, most actors around the world aren’t working non-stop.” the Guns & Gulaabs actor said that despite everything, he’s proud that he has been consistently working in television for over two decades, and that too in crucial roles. “Sometimes, I’ll admit I feel like I could’ve had a bigger car, a bigger house, but surviving for 30 years in the industry is more important than having a big car,” he added.

Recalling his tough phase, he said, “This one time, I was worried that I wouldn’t get any sort of work again. The industry was changing, and I started wondering what else I could do… I was actually down to one and a half or two months of savings. I would’ve had no more than Rs 2 lakh in my bank account. This was in around 2015. It was me, my wife, our four-year-old child, my parents, and two dogs. It was a family of seven, and most people don’t realise this, but when you have a young child at home, your expenses goes through the roof. And then you add the dogs; it’s very expensive to take care of them. I was almost down to my last penny.”

“I did a couple of shows where I would pray that they don’t last for more than a few months. It’s not like I spend lavishly. Yes, I have lavish tastes, but that’s why God created Instagram. So, I decided to do a terrible show just for the money, and every morning I would pray that it gets cancelled after a few months,” he added.