‘Saiyaara’ has not only revived the Hindi film industry’s momentum but also reshaped the careers of everyone involved. It turned Ahaan Panday and Aneet Padda into stars overnight, as this Mohit Suri directorial grossed over ₹500 crore worldwide in just a month, breaking multiple records. Apart from the lead pair, the film’s ensemble cast also got a lot of love and they came into limelight after a while. For instance, veteran television actors like Varun Badola and Rajesh Kumar (known for Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai). In a recent interview, Varun has opened up on his financial struggles in his career and how he didn’t have money for food. Varun admitted he never expected Saiyaara to become such a hit. Looking back at his early years, he said during a chat with Nayandeep Rakshit, “I’ve never asked for work. And I’ve never spent lavishly. I had no need for multiple cars or a large house. I lived in Goregaon, I didn’t have extra cars, and I lived within my means. To this day, it’s not like I have to go out for dinner thrice a week. I have kept my expenses down to the lowest minimum possible.”Even with his careful spending, Varun said he hit rock bottom more than once, as life brought unforeseen hurdles. He also refused to take on work purely for the paycheck. “It’s not that I wear those days as a medal on my chest. I don’t. But it happened. Many times, I wouldn’t know what would happen after two months. I was an assistant director back then,” he recalled.Sharing one memory from those days, Varun said, “A friend and I were living together. We only had Rs 250 left, and we had absolutely nothing else. We decided to go out and splurge on Chinese food. After that, we went to a quarter bar and shared a drink. We didn’t have money for three days after that. We got work after that, and got through another month with that Rs 3000 or Rs 4000. But these things happen.” While he admits to indulging in passions like a pricey motorbike and a sound system, he says that’s about as far as his extravagance goes.In an earlier conversation with Siddharth Kannan, Varun revealed just how close he came to running out of funds. “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,” he said.Meanwhile, Rajesh Kumar also opened up about facing severe financial trouble after investing his savings in farming. In a post-Saiyaara chat with Meri Saheli, he shared, “Bankruptcy, yes. The incoming and outgoing flow had gone for a toss. There was no incoming, and I had exhausted all my reserves because of the outgoing. I went under debt of Rs 2 crore. (Bankruptcy) is a big word, but definitely, I had that feeling with me for a long time. I was not able to generate money for survival also. This was definitely a phase.”
