Chunky Panday, who went through rough times in the mid-1990s after being a successful movie actor for nearly a decade, recently shared that he once attended a funeral in exchange for money. Chunky shared that this happened 38 years ago and while he did get paid for attending a funeral, it wasn’t something that he actively agreed to beforehand. Chunky shared that the man who called him for the funeral offered to pay him more money if he managed to shed a tear or two.
In a chat with Bollywood Bubble, Chunky shared that he landed at a funeral “by mistake” and that it was “not out of choice.” He said that actors, in the 1980s, did not have many alternate streams of income. There was no social media, actors were not present in advertising so they could only make money via movies and attending events. “In those days, there was no source of income besides doing films or going for events. There was no Instagram, YouTube, no ads also. It was a different world that time,” he said.
Chunky recalled that one day, he received a call from an event organiser who wanted him to stop by at a place for ten minutes. Chunky shared that he was going for a shoot but the event was on his way so the organiser asked him to stop by. “He asked me to come in white clothes. I thought it’s a theme. He didn’t tell me where he was calling me. I reached and saw a lot of crowd outside and everyone was dressed in white, so I thought it’s a big event,” he said.
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Chunky shared that as he stepped inside, he saw a dead body and innocently thought that the event organiser was dead. “As I went inside, I saw a dead body lying there. I am so innocent that I thought the organiser died. Then the organiser came to me and I asked him, ‘Who died?’ He said, ‘It’s a funeral that I have called you for’. I couldn’t shout, throw tantrums, I am in the middle of a funeral and the body was right in front of me. He told me, ‘If you cry, I will give you more money’. The actor who went with me cried a lot, he got Rs 50,000 more,” Chunky recalled with a laugh.
The Housefull 5 actor then shared the reason as to why he was called there. He was told that the man who died had taken a lot of loans and the family was scared that the creditors will come and ask for their money, so they came up with a plan. “There was a reason why we were called there. The one who died, he was under a lot of debt. His family was scared that the creditors will come and they will have to return the money. So they had spread the rumour that he produced a film and all his money went in that. Actors were called to create the impression that he was producing a film,” he said.