From Rs 600 a day to Team India: Cricketer tells R Ashwin about his 4200% salary leap

Not a lot of people make it big in cricket despite dreaming of it for years, especially in India. However, Varun Chakravarthy’s story is a bit different.

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In a conversation with cricketer R Ashwin, Varun spoke about how he switched through various career paths before finally making it to cricket.

The cricketer, who made his international debut about four years ago, told Ashwin that he initially worked at an architecture firm after graduating and even started his own interior design business.

“Right after I completed college, I was working in an architectural firm for one and a half years as an assistant architect. I started with around Rs 14,000 a month, and it was Rs 18,000 by the time I left,” he said.

After quitting the job, Varun briefly pursued music. “I took up the guitar to rekindle my love for music. But I realised that to pursue any art form, the passion has to come from within. I could never practice guitar for more than an hour a day,” he said.

After six to eight months, he gave it up.

He then launched an interior design and construction firm, which ran successfully for a year—until Cyclone Vardha struck. “I lost my entire investment,” he recalled. “I was around 24–25 then.”

His creative explorations didn’t stop there. Varun even dipped his toes into acting.

“Some of my friends were in the film industry. I used to accompany them to shoots. Once, while observing a shoot for the movie Jeeva, I hoped to become an assistant director—but I couldn’t even make a proper cricket pitch,” he laughed.

Instead, he landed a role as a junior artist, earning Rs 600 per day. “That was really helpful at the time,” he said. The shoot went on for 20 days. Inspired, he began writing scripts and even directed a few short films—but eventually, cricket took over.

Today, Varun Chakravarthy reportedly earns around Rs 25,000 a day as a cricketer— which translates to a pay rise of roughly 4200 per cent from his Rs 600-a-day acting gig, and a reminder that success often takes the most unexpected paths.