Sanjeev Kapoor is not someone who talks about money often. But when the conversation turned to MasterChef India on Table 1 with Vir Sanghvi, he did not hold back. He said he turned down the show’s first season because the makers refused to meet one condition: he wanted to be paid more than Akshay Kumar. Not significantly more. Just Re 1 more.
The condition he set
When MasterChef India first approached Kapoor ahead of its launch, his ask was straightforward. He wanted to earn at least Re 1 more than whoever else was on the show.
“One rupee more,” he said on the show.
When Sanghvi pushed back and pointed out that Re 1 is a negligible amount and asked if it was an ego issue, Kapoor did not budge. He repeated the same line. One rupee more. That was his position.
The makers told him they had already signed Akshay Kumar for the first season. Kapoor said he maintained that there was nobody else who could do the role the way he could. The team asked him to come on board, calling it a strong offer. But they did not agree to his condition. He said that did not bother him at all. He walked away without hesitation.
Kapoor also turned down requests that came after. The makers approached him to appear for just one episode. He said no to that too.
MasterChef India launched in 2010. The judges for the first season were Akshay Kumar, Chef Kunal Kapur, and Chef Ajay Chopra.
Why he said yes to the third season
By the third season, the show was not doing well. The makers came back to him. They told him MasterChef was struggling and that they needed him.
Kapoor said he initially told them he did not think he could take it on. They told him they would do exactly what he wanted. He noted, with some dryness, that this was not entirely how it played out in practice. But he agreed to join anyway.
His reason had nothing to do with his earlier condition being met. By this point, his thinking had shifted to something bigger.
He had started his television channel Food Food around the same time. The channel was built around elevating other chefs, names like Saransh Goila and Harpal Singh Sokhi. The idea was to grow the entire food entertainment space, not just his own profile.
That broader thinking is what brought him to MasterChef India. He said on the show: “If MasterChef fails in this country, we are doomed.” His point was that the show’s failure would hurt not just the channel but the entire business of food on Indian television. For the space to grow, the environment around it had to become bigger. That was the logic behind Food Food and that was the logic that got him to agree to the third season.
About Sanjeev Kapoor
Sanjeev Kapoor became a household name through Khana Khazana, which ran for nearly two decades on Zee TV and became one of the longest-running cookery shows in Asia. He has authored over 150 cookbooks, launched multiple restaurant chains, and built a food media business that spans television, digital content, and packaged food products. Food Food, his dedicated television channel, was launched in 2011 and continues to operate as a platform for food content and new culinary talent in India.