Jaideep Ahlawat's inspiring success story: From 50 lakhs to multi-crore deal

Paatal Lok Season 2 is out and fans cannot stop raving about Jaideep Ahlawat’s stupendous performance. It was a much-awaited Season 2 after the first season of Paatal Lok released five years ago received an overwhelming response. The recently released season of the intense crime thriller shows the return of Inspector Hathiram Chaudhary impressively played by Jaideep Ahlawat.

Once again Hathiram is assigned the task of unravelling the mystery behind a complex murder that took place in the northeast of India. While a fresh star cast of Nagesh Kukunoor, Tillotama Shome, Jahnu Barua, and Anurag Arora bring more layers and excitement to the story it is Jaideep’s Hathiram and Ishwak Singh’s Ansari that keeps the viewers on edge.

There has been no doubt that Jaideep is a fantastic actor right from the start when he made his mark with Gangs of Wasseypur in 2012. Since then he has been doing some good work with projects like Gabbar is Back, Commando: A One Man Army, Raees, Raazi, and more. But all through this journey Jaideep Ahlawat played side roles or even minor roles that were not noticed much.

Even though his characters were much remembered Jaideep did not get the respect that his contemporaries like Nawazuddin Siddiqui or Pankaj Tripathi were getting around the same time. But things seem to have changed for the brilliant actor. Not only is he receiving widespread appreciation for his portrayal of Hathiram, but he has now started receiving a good amount of pay for playing such memorable characters.

The actor was paid Rs 40 lakh for his role in Paatal Lok Season 1. But the way he made his character memorable and lifted the overall story of the series with his strong performance made the producers also take notice of his efforts and impact. And that is why 3 to 4 years later when it was time to start shooting for the second season, Jaideep Ahlawat hiked his fees almost 50 times more.

In between the first and the second season of Paatal Lok, Jaideep worked on many other projects including Jaane Jaan, Maharaj, Khaali Peeli and successfully managed to create a decent following for himself. And that is why for Paatal Lok Season 2, the actor was paid, Rs 20 crore which seems to be much more than even lead actors like Rajkummar Rao or Ayushmann Khurrana are paid.