Ahsaas Channa, who played Shah Rukh Khan’s son in ‘Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna’, is still acting but admits that her main source of income is brand deals and endorsements.
Ahsaas Channa, who will be seen in Amazon MiniTV’s show ‘Half CA’ in 2023, started acting at the age of five. He appeared as a boy in the 2004 horror film ‘Vastu Shastra’ starring Sushmita Sen and, more memorably, as Shah Rukh Khan and Preity Zinta’s son in Karan Johar’s 2006 romantic film ‘Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna’. However, Channa feels that she still doesn’t earn enough from acting and has to rely on other sources like brand deals and endorsements to make money.
“I think you can’t make money as an actor. You have to do brand deals and endorsements to make money because brands only have money to give you,” admitted Channa. She further added, “I won’t say I don’t make money (from acting), but not enough. I won’t be able to do as many projects in a year as brands do. I will be able to make a certain amount of money by doing just one or two projects in a year. But I will be able to make more money by working with 20 brands in a year.”
On the Humans of Bombay podcast, Channa argued that the money from brand deals is helpful for her as she can restrict her acting to creative purposes only. “I think I am very lucky and fortunate that I get to choose my acting projects only from a creative point of view. I don’t have to think financially while saying yes to an acting project. Suppose, I don’t have work, I don’t have money, then I have to say yes. It has never happened that anything comes and I do it because I need money. I have always been in a position where I say no to a project only if it doesn’t suit me creatively, because in terms of money, I have a good backup of brands. So if I don’t do an acting project for a year, it’s okay. Financially, acting is not my first choice, but brands are,” Channa told.
However, she admitted that being an actor is her main identity as it helps her get money-making brands. “I am not even an influencer or a content creator. I am an actor with a certain number of followers,” Channa added. He further added, “Luckily, I have done enough projects, or at least one project, in a year to stay relevant as an actor so that brands can come and offer me. Luck also plays a part. There has never been a time when I haven’t done an acting project for an entire year.”
Channa claimed that since not many people knew that he played a boy in his early films, he gets a lot of messages from girls who say that Shah Rukh broke their hearts when they found out that the boy they had a crush on was actually a girl. He also described working with Shah Rukh as “one of the best experiences” of his life. “He is very humble and hardworking. I would make greeting cards for him and write him letters on the set. When I gave a shot that was really difficult and didn’t make it into the film, he would be the first one to clap for me,” Channa recalled.
She also recalled her meeting with another Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna co-star Abhishek Bachchan at an awards show recently. “Luckily, I was in the same queue. I was thinking should I meet him, he won’t remember, I will have to remind him, it will feel awkward. And I was just sitting and looking at him. He was talking to many people, then he turned and looked at me and then came to me with his arms wide open to hug me. He said, ‘Ahsaas, wow, you have grown up!’ You have no idea how happy I was,” Channa said.
