Shah Rukh’s Ravi Singh to Salman Khan’s Shera, how much Bollywood’s top bodyguards really earn

Security agency model

Celebrity bodyguards often become part of an artiste’s inner circle, making fans curious about the hiring process and salary structure. Sameer, who handles the security of Bollywood celebs when they are in Delhi, says they communicate with artiste’s managers and are hired by them. “The managers take care of agency hiring. However, this is done in consultation with artistes’ themselves.”

Security personnel Zeeshan Qureshi, who primarily manages Sidharth Malhotra, explained the agency model. “Earlier, there were only a few prominent security agencies, including Ronit Roy’s Ace Security and Protection, who provided services to all the A-listers – Shah Rukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan, and others. These companies used to employee 50-60 people on payroll, and give them monthly salaries,” he said.

He further continued, “These bodyguards used to provide security for 10-12 hours everyday to a celebrity. They only used to receive salaries, but no perks such as conveyance or other charges. When the company received a particular amount for a film shoot, they used to pay 10% to the security guard who is on the job. They used to eat food with the celebrity’s team on set. But now, security guards have started connecting with the artistes personally, avoiding the agency route. Moreover, even if they are coming through an agency, they get 25% of the payment, along with the monthly salary.”

Actor Deepika Padukone’s security is handled by her longtime bodyguard Jalaluddin Shaikh. According to several reports, Jalal’s annual salary is estimated to be around Rs 1.2 crore per year. He often shares pictures with the Padmavat star on his social media handles.

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Anushka Sharma’s bodyguard Prakash Singh aka Sonu, has been with her for many years, even before her marriage to Virat Kohli in 2017. He is often seen travelling with both Anushka and Virat, protecting them in public spaces.

Shera, who handles, Salman’s security, has his own security agency called Tiger security, since 1995. He has been the superstar’s trusted personal bodyguard since 1997. He travels with Salman to almost every private event, film set, or other shoots. His earning is again said to be in crores.

Salman Khan’s bodyguard Shera

Debunking myths

The bigger the celebrity, the more elaborate the security ecosystem becomes. Sameer debunked the myth that Salman Khan’s bodyguard Shera or Shah Rukh Khan’s personal security guard Ravi Singh get a salary of over Rs 2 crores. Having said that, he admitted that they do get certain privileges and their salaries are much higher than other bodyguards. “If we are getting 50 paise for a job, they would get paid Rs 1, because they are working with a big artiste. They have huge packages,” he said.

Yusuf Ibrahim, who handles the security for actor Alia Bhatt and has worked with Shah Rukh Khan and many other stars in the past, told SCREEN that there is no way celebrity bodyguards are earning crores monthly. “All this isn’t possible. They have a fixed salary but the rest depends on whatever they can make through different shoots. What you see about bodyguards making crores  a month is not true.”

Zeeshan revealed that whoever operates social media, exaggerates the amount paid to bodyguards. “Case in point – Aamir Khan’s staff only gets salary of Rs 25,000 per month. His bodyguards work in 3 shifts of 4 hours each. He has a total of 12 people, and there are 4 people with him at all times. They don’t get any added per day or brand shoot payments,” he stated.

The bodyguard added, “However, other stars like Shah Rukh, Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar, and Hrithik Roshan, have security guards working with them since several years. They don’t belong to any company. If there’s any shoot or visit planned, their security has a fixed amount that they always charge on daily basis, along with the salaries given by actors. The contract is drawn up that way so that the driver, hair-makeup artist and security is included.”

The payments for a film shoot, for instance, is paid by the producer. If the actor is doing an ad shoot, photo shoot or making an appearance at an event, the client pays for security along with other costs. For security, these costs can range anything from Rs 25,000 to Rs 1 lakh for a few hours or a day.

Alia Bhatt’s bodyguard Yusuf Ibrahim

In fact, Zeeshan admitted that most of these top celebrity bodyguards “don’t prefer” taking salaries. “It is so minimal and a mere formality. When they are getting paid Rs 1-1.5 lacs for a single event, why would they care about Rs 30-40K? I have never charged any salary from them myself, and I have worked with Varun Dhawan, Alia, Ranbir Kapoor, and now with Siddharth.”

Film shoots, brands, and advertisements

A celebrity’s security team has to accompany him/her to every shoot assignment, be it for a film, ad, or even appearances. While many may think that the artist pays for his own security, it is important to mention that the expenses are covered by the other party. For example, if an actor is travelling for a movie shoot with his entire team (including security and hair-makeup artists), then the producer will bear the costs of travel, hotel, food, and other miscellaneous expenses. The same rule is applied during photo or ad shoots  as the brand pays.

Talking about the per day payments for such assignments, Yusuf said, “These are decided between the managers and the production houses. We have no say in this, they decide the budget which is given to everybody. It keeps varying according to the budgets and stars. The travelling, hotel and food expenses, everything is taken care of by the promotors.”

Sameer agreed with Yusuf’s assertion and said, “The expenses are taken care of by the production house. The artiste only pays if the security has been hired for any personal use, they don’t pay anything during promotions. In the case of an ad shoot, they have a separate component for both hair-makeup and security. Around Rs 1.5 lakh is paid to HMU artists and around Rs 70-75K budget for security.”

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Elaborating the entire process behind providing security for various shoots of actors, Zeeshan shared, “Every actor has a WhatsApp group with their entire team. Their managers drop a message on the group, revealing the timings and days of shoot and send the remuneration on DM. There’s mostly no need for negotiation from our side. The best part is that the actor’s staff payments never get stalled, be it for a film or any other shoot. We even receive it in advance sometimes. This is the biggest plus point of working with actors.”

Shah Rukh Khan’s bodyguard Ravi Singh

Salary perks of celebrity bodyguards

The security agents also tend to maintain a personal relationship with the artist, which in turn helps them with salary perks and benefits. The system is followed by most of the celebrities, including, Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhatt, Siddharth Malhotra.

When asked about celebs covering various expenses like school fees of children, vacations, medical, etc, Yusuf shared, “Its there, its definitely there. They do take care of what is required by their staff, its internal and between them, jiska jitna dil ho (depending on what perks an individual wants to give).” To which Zeeshan added, sharing his experience with actor Taapsee Pannu. “Even if you are living in a rented house, they cover those charges as well. With Taapsee, she took care of schooling, medical, house rent, etc. Every artist has done this in my experience.”