Vikrant Massey Reveals Turning Down High-Paid TV Contract, Elaborates On Why He Left The 'Exploitative' Industry

Before Vikrant Massey came to be associated with the Vidhu Vinod Chopra-directorial ‘12th Fail,’ he was known for his work on the long-running daily soap opera ‘Balika Vadhu.’ But why did he depart from the television industry? In a conversation on ‘Unfiltered by Samdish’ on YouTube, Massey revealed his reasons for the same.

Vikrant Massey remembered instances when makers created misogynistic content for the sake of TRP, which did not sit well with him. He said, “There were many, which were happening repetitively, which is why I left TV. Universally, everyone was doing the same thing. Be it any field, when a certain thing works, only its versions are then replicated. So on TV when misogynistic content worked, which included bahu pe atyachaar (torture the daughter-in-law), there were takers as well so people were making just that for TRP.”

He further went on to add, “On TV, a lot of irritating things would happen, like MBAs calling the shots on stories. They would say, ‘Make only these kinds of episodes for rating, as per our internal research.’ They really made a fool out of many by saying this was ‘internal research’ and asking for a ‘maha episode’, which would be of one hour. After a point, I fought with them and said I won’t do it.”

Massey also added that he felt like his potential wasn’t being fully used. He revealed that he could have done a lot more but he wasn’t given an opportunity to do so. He stated that whatever he did in television was solely because of his belief in the content of the show, however, after a point, it wasn’t all that fun.  

But he was done with television, and wanted to close that chapter. His determination was extreme as he disclosed turning down a Rs 35 lakh per month contract to pursue a career in cinema. “I earned a lot of money through TV… But there was regressing content on TV and I wanted to move to cinema.” Post quitting the television industry, he depleted his savings in less than two years. During that time, his then-girlfriend (now wife) Sheetal Thakur provided financial support, offering him pocket money for attending auditions for many movies.

He ended the discussion by stating that the television industry, characterized by its long, tiring working hours and a 90-day payment cycle, is extremely “exploitative.”