Johnny Galecki revealed Kunal Nayyar borrowed money early on in ‘The Big Bang Theory’, with no confirmation if it was repaid.
The Big Bang Theory was one of TV’s biggest hits, ranking high on CBS, snagging Emmy nominations over fifty times, and winning several awards across twelve seasons. It’s still being rerun on the streaming platform and gaining new fans today. One would think the cast would have done pretty well from all that.
The thing is, right from the start, the cast wasn’t well-known and were just new faces in Hollywood. Even though they made it big, some of them faced a few bumps along the way, like Kunal Nayyar, who apparently owed money to one of his castmates.
Johnny Galecki Admits His Castmate Asked Him For Money
Johnny Galecki and Kunal Nayyar in The Big Bang Theory (Credits: CBS)
Despite various challenges over the years to keep the show going, The Big Bang Theory wrapped up its final season in 2019 with great success. One of the most interesting things is that when the first episode aired, viewers were introduced to fresh new faces in the main cast.
Johnny Galecki, Jim Parsons, and Kaley Cuoco are among the highest-paid stars for their regular roles on the sitcom. The show helped them make a name for themselves in the industry, but they fought hard for it before hitting it big. Even though the project was a major success, the actors weren’t well-known at first, so it wasn’t smooth sailing from the start.
Kunal Nayyar, although wasn’t initially considered for a lead role just like Simon Helberg, is a prime example of this. When the cast reunited for an interview with Entertainment Weekly in 2019 and were asked about their early memories of him, Galecki was quick to share:
Jim and I had a different frame of reference when we started. Not necessarily better by any means, because we had done a pilot for the show beforehand, and so when I met Kunal and Simon and Kaley, when we did that first table read, I’ll never forget that. It felt like a band you had been playing with for years. It felt very rhythmic, very musical.
Comedy always is, I suppose. I remember Kunal doing something I hadn’t predicted at the table read. It changed just by a minute degree. But it just worked better. That seemed to be the case with everybody around the table. Then Kunal asked to borrow money. I thought that was odd. I only remember that because he hasn’t paid me back.
It’s not clear why Nayyar asked the castmate for money, or exactly when it happened over the course of the twelve seasons. However, there could be a couple of theories.
Why Did Kunal Nayyar Ask Johnny Galecki For Money?
Years have passed since The Big Bang Theory ended, but one debt still lingers. Although Galecki admitted in 2019 that Nayyar owed him money, there’s no confirmation about whether the payment was made afterward.
As for why Nayyar asked for the loan, while it’s plausible that the actor who plays Raj might have faced financial difficulties, leading him to request help, this could be just speculation — nothing has been confirmed. It’s worth noting that in the early seasons, his character was considered secondary, and it took a while before he was paid on par with Galecki, Parsons, and Cuoco per episode.
In 2012, the actor was reportedly sued for owing $100,000 to his agent. According to TMZ, Nayyar was required to pay a portion of his The Big Bang Theory earnings, as the agency claimed responsibility for securing the role for him. This debt had been accumulating since September 2011.
Nayyar had been paying commissions since 2007, but the reason he stopped is not specified. The outcome of the lawsuit hasn’t been made public, but whether true or not, this could also be a plausible explanation. He currently has a net worth of $45 million.
The Big Bang Theory is available to stream on Max.
