• Source:JND
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Varun Grover made his screenwriting debut with Neeraj Ghaywan's Masaan (2015) after he had contributed as a lyricist for a number of movies. The stand-up comedian needed a couple more years to further establish himself, even while the film was widely praised when it first came out. In his early days, he also wrote for a number of popular shows, including Ranvir Vinay Aur Kaun and The Great Indian Comedy Show.

Varun Grover recently talked candidly about his experience as a writer on the celebrity talk show "Oye! It's Friday! which was hosted by Farhan Akhtar. Speaking to Lallantop, he revealed that he stopped writing stand-up material for movie stars at that point, claiming that the actor made 100 times more money than he did using the stuff he produced, and that, too, without any value addition.

Varun Grover said, "After Ranvir Vinay Aur Kaun, I joined Farhan saab's Oye! It's Friday! It was during my time there that I realised that there was not much value addition happening from the side of the performer to the material I was writing for them."

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"That was also the first time I got to know how much actors make doing such shows. Even though I had an idea prior to that as well, I did not assume the gap to be so big. But once I learnt about it – maybe it’s false information and somebody told me this only to provoke me; I can’t say for sure – I realised the gap was huge. He was being paid Rs 45 lakh for each episode, while I was earning just Rs 45,000," the comedian turned writer disclosed. Varun highlighted that it was his material while the celebrity was just delivering the lines.

Additionally, Varun Grover stated that the talk show's set was so lavish that some of the accessories were as expensive as his pay every episode. "The show was shot in Yash Raj Studio. It was a really good, expensive set. Had I stolen one of those twinkling balls hanging there each day, my daily Rs 45,000 would’ve been sorted. That was the first time I saw such a dazzling set. That was the first time I saw such a dazzling set," he added. 

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Varun revealed that it was by that time when he lost in interest in writing for such shows. "By then, I had also lost interest in writing stand-up for television, particularly since censorship had also started," he said in concluding statement. 

The underpaid and usually ignored problems of entertainment writers are examined in Varun Grover's words.