With nearly 10 days since its premiere, Bigg Boss 19, hosted by Salman Khan, is buzzing not just for its drama, but also for the eye-popping contestant salaries – and topping the list is TV star Gaurav Khanna.

According to The Indian Express, the Anupama star, who recently also won Celebrity MasterChef, is believed to be charging a staggering ₹17.5 lakhs a week for this Bigg Boss 19 stint. He is the highest-paid contestant, followed by music composer Amaal Mallik. Sources told the news outlet that Gaurav has been promised a new show with either Star or Colors once his Bigg Boss stint ends. He was also reportedly among the last contestants to be cast into the show.

The highest paid in Bigg Boss history

Pamela Anderson remains the top earner of all time, having pocketed a whopping ₹2.5 crore for just three days on Bigg Boss 4. In comparison, Gaurav Khanna’s pay works out to around ₹2.5 lakh per day, placing him in sixth position in the list of top 10 highest paid Bigg Boss contestants. According to NDTV, Amaal Mallik draws roughly ₹1.25 lakh a day for his appearance on the show. Back in season 12, actor Karanveer Bohra joined the list of highest-paid contestants after bagging ₹20 lakhs a week. Popular contestants Awez Darbar and Ashnoor Kaur are reportedly charging around ₹6 lakhs a week, while Pranit More and Mridul Tiwari sit at the bottom of the pay scale this season.

In-house drama

It has hardly been two weeks since the new season of Bigg Boss aired, but the house is already boiling over with drama. Sparks flew recently when a massive fight broke out between Farrhana Bhatt and Baseer Ali, escalating to the point where personal belongings were damaged – Baseer even hurled Farrhana’s mattress into the swimming pool. Adding to the drama, Kunickaa Sadanand lost her immunity after being disqualified from the captaincy task, paving the way for Ashnoor Kaur to secure immunity in her place.

Contestants seem to have divided themselves into distinct groups, with Gaurav Khanna, Abhishek Bajaj, Nagma Mirajkar, Farrhana Bhatt, and Mridul Tiwari forming one camp, while Amaal Mallik, Zeishan Quadri, Baseer Ali, Nehal Chudasama, and Ashnoor Kaur appear to stand together in another. A third team has emerged with Kunickaa Sadanand, Tanya Mittal, Neelam Giri, and Pranit More. Ashnoor Kaur and Natalia Stanoszek, however, continue to play neutral for now.