'I Had To Sell Off My House': Rubina Dilaik On Not Being Paid For 3 Months During Choti Bahu

By Samprita on 21 May 2019

Senior Digital Editor

Samprita Kuncolinkar holds a bachelor's degree in English Literature and has been working at GirlStyle India since its inception. She works as a Senior Lifestyle Editor who is deeply in love with all things beauty, fashion, entertainment and lifestyle. Enjoying the online version of the magazine, the genres of her articles keep varying as she loves to move and groove. Apart from her work life, she loves binge-watching Netflix and loves to eat junk food for happiness.

Rubina Dilaik rose to fame after her role as Simran Gill in the popular daily drama Choti Bahu. She gained a huge fan following during the show and was also ranked number 10 in the Top 50 Sexiest Asian Women by Eastern Eye.

Photo from Instagram

During an interview recently with an entertainment portal, the actress expressed her feeling about days when she was struggling. She told about how she had lost a lot of her signed shows because she requested to make changes in her contact. She continued saying, "we don’t change our rules for anyone and to work with us, you have to follow them".

The actress also said, “Well, this trend was set long before I got into the industry, and I had to comply because I was fresh off the boat. Later, with an understanding of the work ethics and legal knowledge, I realised that almost 90% of the actors, including me, sign one-sided contracts, favouring the production house. Working for over 12 hours, 30 days a month and being paid after 90 days, and in many cases even more than that, isn’t only unethical but is against working laws.”

Photo from Instagram

Furthermore, talking about her work hours on the sets of her first show, she said: “I even played double roles in harsh conditions, yet I wasn’t paid my dues for the last three months, which were in lakhs.”

Talking more about her financial troubles, Rubina said, "For nine months, I pleaded for my money, went to the actors association for help, but no one cared or helped apart from [making] big fancy promises. I had to sell off my house and property because I couldn’t pay off my EMIs."

And continuing the chat on negotiations, Rubina said, "After crying my heart out, the production house finally called me up for negotiation.hey’d say things like, ‘We have uplinks on your name for the number of hours or you didn’t shoot because of torn sari blouse, you fell sick, you asked for a half day…’. This just added to my agony because there was no truth in all that."

Photo from Instagram

To conclude Rubina said she was so tired of all the exploitation and finally gave up. She said, “[By the end of it], I was tormented and desperate, so I agreed to all of it and stepped out crestfallen with the negotiated amount. It led me to depression, but I took this as a learning experience and moved on with a renewed determination to never let anyone walk over my well-deserved and hard-earned money”.

Hats-off to Rubina for speaking about the struggles of a celebrity behind all the fame & luxury.

Currently, Rubina is playing the role of Soumya in the show Shakti - Astitva Ke Ehsaas Ki.