There are times when I am scared of waking up the next morning because I will have to face so many problems within my home,” says veteran actor and writer Mohammed Ahmed. “Just because the payment that was due to me, because of work that I had already completed, had not yet come.”

It’s a heartbreaking revelation — but not a particularly surprising one. For the longest time, members of the entertainment fraternity have voiced their distress at not being paid on time by channels and production houses. The only difference now is that what was once discussed only within groups of close friends is now being spoken about loudly through social media.

One after the other, renowned names in Pakistan’s entertainment industry have spoken about projects that they had completed, only to wait for months for payments to come through.

What is even more sad is that their paymasters are not usually independent producers struggling to survive but are, in fact, some of the country’s most respected production houses and channels, the so-called ‘giants’ who helm mega-starrer dramas and films and celebrate their successes with lavish, star-studded ceremonies.

The actors, writers and directors protesting against payment delays have so far avoided naming and shaming their paymasters publicly. They simply cannot afford to. The Pakistani entertainment landscape is dominated by a handful of channels and production houses and, should an actor prove to be ‘troublesome’, he or she risks losing out on roles and getting slowly but surely eliminated from the industry altogether.

Behind the glitz and sparkle of TV drama entertainment lies a far less appealing story of delayed payments to actors, directors and others who work on the productions that fill the enormous appetite of the industry. Why can’t timely payments be made to people who have professionally fulfilled their work commitments, so that they too can keep their households running?

The noise against delayed payments is still, however, ringing out loud and clear, as many in the acting fraternity clock in full working days for months but struggle to pay their bills on time. They may not be taking names but it is usually easy to fill in the blanks and figure out who they are referring to.

“I sometimes wonder how people working with them manage to run their kitchen,” senior actress Nida Mumtaz had said referring to a certain channel, in an earlier interview with Icon.

“Like beggars”

The conversation on extreme delays in payments came to the forefront some weeks ago when Mehreen Jabbar, one of Pakistan’s most accomplished directors, said in an interview that “we have to chase them [channels and production houses] like beggars for our payments.”

She had added that these issues were not exclusive to certain individuals. “Everyone faces this, from the actor to the spot boy to the director…”

These quotes had propelled actor and writer Mohammad Ahmed to upload a heartfelt video on his Instagram page, recounting his woes against production houses and channels who delay payments by months. The video had been shared and reshared on social media, with others from the fraternity sharing their own bad experiences. Did the noise on Instagram help improve the pay-cycle for Mohammad Ahmed?

“Unfortunately, no,” he says. “All it managed to do was give others the courage to also speak out. The channels have their own reasoning: they say that they are waiting for advertisers to pay, and only then will they have the funds to give to producers who will then roll out money to actors.

“However, if they are running huge channels and airing multiple projects, they should have the money to pay to the teams working for them. This treatment is not just restricted to actors, writers and directors, even the lower staff working in channels sometimes don’t get paid on time,” adds Ahmed.

The last cheque never comes in. It’s the payment that is due to you, even though the shooting has wrapped up. I feel that producers pray that the actor simply dies so that the last payment doesn’t have to be done,” says actor and writer Mohammad Ahmed

“The gaffers come early in the morning and work till late in the night. There are times when boys die on set from electrocution because safety procedures have not been followed. And yet, channels and production houses have become so cold-hearted that they don’t care. You’ll see the heads on social media, throwing parties and enjoying exotic vacations abroad, but they won’t have the funds to pay their actors, nor will they follow safety protocols to ensure that no accidents take place during drama shoots.”

He continues: “The last cheque never comes in. It’s the payment that is due to you, even though the shooting has wrapped up. I feel that producers pray that the actor simply dies so that the last payment doesn’t have to be done.

“I won’t name names but, recently, I worked in a drama where the lead actress kept reminding the finance team for about two months that she needed to be given her last payment on time or, else, she would leave the shoot. The cheque didn’t come in. So, one day, she came on set, got her hair and make-up done, and then announced that she was leaving and waiting at home. Once the payment was transferred to her, she would return to the location and shoot the scenes scheduled for that day. The payment was promptly transferred to her even before she had left the set!”

He recounts another similar episode: “Another time, a senior actress had five days’ payment left and the producers were not paying. She flew back to her home in Lahore and told them that once the payment was made, she would promptly return to the set and shoot the remaining scenes.

“These are the tactics that actors have to employ because there is no other way. A finance head of a channel once said to me that do you think I am always going around with cheques in my hand? I had only been inquiring about the money that was owed to me. This other time, a major channel informed me that my cheque had not been deposited because their courier hadn’t come in that day! Even after that day, the payment only came in a month-and-a-half later.”

Mohammad Ahmed further points out that not everyone suffers from such attitudes. “The producers’ favourites get paid well on time,” he says, referring to the popular actors and actresses playing lead roles. “The producers pay them in advance, even before the project begins shooting, even from their own pockets if needed. And when the time comes to fulfill pending payments, the leading stars are paid first while the supporting cast may have to wait for ages before they get what is due to them.”

Actress Arjumand Rahim speaks from her own experiences. “When they finally do pay you, it is like they are doing you a favour, prioritising you over others who they also haven’t paid,” she says. “I find it humiliating. This is money that they owe me for work I have already done. The staff that they hire is also often very rude. They gaslight you and, when you complain to the production heads, they laugh it off and act as if they don’t know. How can they not? And now that they do know, why do they not fire their staff?”

In fact, even actors who play leading roles in dramas often face payment delays. Actor Faysal Quraishi says that, over the course of his career, he has been paid late for a project half the time. “These delays are unfortunately a norm in Pakistan’s entertainment industry,” he observes.

“If the deal is that I will be paid after completing 25 percent of my work, I will always have to remind the finance department about this around the time that I should be paid. There are often delays. Sometimes, the cheque hasn’t been signed yet and you have to wait. Sometimes, the cheque comes on Friday and you can only cash it two days later, on Monday. These things happen.”

He adds, “If an actor is late in coming on set, he or she is called constantly by multiple people. If a drama shooting that is supposed to end at 10pm gets extended by an hour-and-a-half, it is no big deal. But while actors are supposed to make these allowances for producers, they are also expected to shrug away delays in their payments.”

The payment hierarchy

Certain stars are prioritised when it comes to prompt payments, as pointed out by Mohammed Ahmed.

Director Aehsun Talish confirms this: “The major stars are usually paid in advance. And if they don’t get paid, they simply don’t come on set. Shooting halts altogether and the producer can’t afford that. Also, most leading heroes and heroines in TV dramas have alternate revenue streams to rely on. They earn a lot simply through commercials and Instagram endorsements. Many of the actors in the supporting cast, however, are entirely dependent on the pay cheques that they get from TV channels and producers.”

Director Saife Hassan concurs. “The actors whose careers are on the rise will always be paid more promptly,” he says. “I have seen a lot of payment delays throughout my career and channels and production companies tend to blame advertisers. In the case of the lead actors, though, they are willing to pay from their own funds.”

In order to make ends meet, many actors work in multiple projects simultaneously. Usman Peerzada, who usually plays paternal roles in TV dramas, has opted to divide his working days between five or six projects at a time. “Even if payment doesn’t come from one production house, it is likely to come from another one,” he says.

Others simply give preference to projects where they know that they will be paid on time. Actor, director and producer Yasir Hussain recounts his own experience while working on his in-house production, Paradise.

“I only started working on the drama once I had enough money in my bank account to finance it completely. I made sure that every actor’s payment was given out on time, as soon as his or her work had wrapped up. They were all very happy but they also told me stories about the difficulties that they faced with other producers. I noticed that many of them very willingly allotted their dates to my project before they scheduled their work in other dramas. They knew that, with me, they would get timely payments.”

The legal side to the story

But aren’t there legal contracts that get signed to ensure timely payments? Mohammad Ahmed says, “We usually don’t get a copy of the contracts that we sign. And the producer’s signature isn’t there, [supposedly] to be done later. Basically, we don’t have a choice but to sign up or else lose out on work.”

Actress Atiqa Odho, former chairperson and current ‘Protocol Officer’ of the Actor’s Collective of Pakistan (ACT), the organisation taking responsibility for looking out for the interests of Pakistan’s acting community, says that a mutually viable contract has been drafted, which actors can utilise when signing on to a new project.

“We act as intermediaries when an actor comes to us with a complaint, helping recover the payment. The contract that has been drafted [by ACT] benefits both parties and there are clauses within it that can be implemented in [added to] the contract sent out by the production company, should they agree to it.”

But are producers willing to accept the contract? Or do they have their own complaints against the acting fraternity? There’s always another side to the story.

The other side

“Actors certainly suffer from late payments but, at the same time, I have seen producers in distress because their lead actors don’t arrive on time, leading to delays in shooting,” says Faysal Quraishi.

There are horror stories that filter out from drama sets where the lead actor or actress suddenly chooses to take a few days off, without prior notice, availing a lucrative offer to work in a TV commercial. Since he or she is essential to the drama narrative, the entire schedule gets delayed by days, with other actors’ work calendars also being compromised.

Senior actors have ranted in multiple interviews about having to wait on set, waiting for the main leads to wake up from their slumber and belatedly arrive in the afternoon. And then there are stories of actors who sign a contract, shoot a project for a few days and then have a change of heart and walk out.

Also, not every producer is inclined towards delayed payments. Actor Aagha Ali says, “There was a time when I did endure payment delays. My past few projects, though, have been with 7th Sky Entertainment and they are very diligent with payments. You don’t even have to remind them. Their team will call you themselves on the scheduled date and tell you to come and pick up your cheque.”

He adds: “There was this time when I had set aside my dates for a 7th Sky Entertainment drama and the shooting got delayed at the last minute because the female lead was unavailable and another actress had to be hired. 7th Sky Entertainment still paid me for those days because I had blocked them for their drama, not signing on to another project for that time period. That rarely ever happens. It was extremely ethical of them.”

Another actor chooses to stay anonymous but recounts that, when he needed money for a sudden family emergency, 7th Sky Entertainment gave him the full payment for a project that he had signed on to but which hadn’t begun shooting.

Similarly, Arjumand Raheem recounts that, when a project that she had signed on to with Big Bang Entertainment got delayed due to sudden cast changes, she was paid the full amount for the days that she had set aside for the drama, even though no shooting was done.

The payment cycle, according to most channels, goes through multiple hiccups because remunerations can only be rolled out once advertisers make payments. This amount is forwarded to production companies who then subdivide it between the various teams working on their projects. Why, though, aren’t the amounts to be paid set aside before a project is started off?

This is, of course, easier said than done. Billions are invested into generating a constant influx of content for TV. But billions are also earned, not just through TV but also through other platforms like YouTube. Producers’ dilemmas cannot be dismissed out of hand as they wait for channels to pay them and deal with unprofessional actors who cause delays and waste time and money. But can’t steps be taken to ensure that timely payments are made to people who have professionally fulfilled their work commitments?

How do actors run their homes without being given any pay? Sadly, the dilemma persists.

Published in Dawn, ICON, September 6th, 2025