Laapataa Ladies actor Satendra Soni alleges filmmaker threatened to kill him on set

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In the caption, Satendra went on to elaborate and wrote, “Hello, my name is Satendra Soni. I am an actor. I went to Maihar, Madhya Pradesh, to shoot for a film called Ped Palki. The director and producer for it is Pushpendra Singh, who also made Ajmer 92. They just sent me Rs 50,000 in advance to come to shoot, and committed to make the rest of the payment during the shoot. I had a total of 10 days’ job of shooting. After 7-8 days, they didn’t pay me anything. There, I also heard people in the unit saying no one got paid. When I asked about payment, I was told to pack up. Pushpendra started threatening me and said, ‘You check out from the hotel in 10 minutes, you should not be seen in the hotel, or else we will kill you.’ His wife, Pragati Chauhan, who was the heroine of the movie, also scolded and hurled dirty abuses at me. I was very scared, and as I started checking out of the hotel in fear. Shreedhar Dubey and Pankaj Sharma also came with me.”

Satendra Soni later shared a video confirming that they had safely reached Mumbai after receiving help from the Maihar police, actor Ashutosh Rana and others. In the video, Satendra said, “We have safely reached Mumbai. Maihar police have supported us immensely; others also helped us. It has been a very tough journey, but we are back in Mumbai. We were mentally very disturbed. This was the first time we faced something like this. It’s a lesson for us. We were shocked and needed someone to motivate us. We have reached Mumbai with great difficulty, but we are safe now. Ashutosh Rana also helped us a lot. We were feeling alone. The way he behaved made it clear that his motive was different, but we artistes stood together and somehow managed to return.”

Mistreatment of character artists

Last week, SCREEN reported on the mistreatment of character artistes on film sets. The incident involving Satendra Soni is yet another reminder of the challenges these actors continue to face, particularly when it comes to payments and job security. In the interview with SCREEN, character artiste Jatin Negi said, “Payments for secondary and tertiary characters are often delayed. If you are playing a character role, it will be very difficult for you to get paid Rs 5 lakhs. If the film flops, people say they invested everything in the project, and there is nothing left to pay others. There is a huge difference in the amounts paid to leads and character artists. Tertiary characters are hired for Rs 5000 per day. There could be a deal where they have to work for two days, and they are getting Rs 8-10,000 after 2 months. Character artists generally don’t get respected; your role decides the respect you get.”

Actor Sunita Rajwar, meanwhile, shared, “Everyone is paid differently; it depends on market value. Every director, even some big names, tries to make artists work for free, saying that they are getting a platform. There are actors who get paid more for working for five days as compared to those who work for 15 days. I have heard that character artists are the first ones to suffer during losses or pay cuts; I have not experienced it. But a friend was once told her payment would be reduced since the project faced losses.”

DISCLAIMER: This article reports on personal accounts of emotional distress and professional hardship within the entertainment industry based on unverified social media claims. The details presented are for informational purposes only and do not constitute professional or legal advice.