It doesn’t pay to be the common man. Not if you are one of the 11 “Commoners” on Salman Khan’s reality show Bigg Boss 11 that is currently teasing and exciting Colors’ viewers nationwide. This season, no Commoner is getting a participation fee for being on Bigg Boss 11. And they are mighty upset by this partiality.

The theme on the show, as in last season, remains Commoners vs. Celebrities. But while the Celebrities including Hina Khan, Hiten Tejwani, Shilpa Shinde and Vikas Gupta get as little as Rs. 3 lakh a day and as much as Rs. 10 lakh, the poor Commoners’ takeaway is only the “fame” and “popularity” they get from being on the reality show.

Earlier seasons of Bigg Boss had the Commoner being paid as much as Rs. 25,000 a week. But this time likes of Lucinda Nicholas, Priyank Sharma, Zubair Khan (well, he’s hardly a commoner anymore!) Sabyasachi, Puneesh Sharma, Sapna Choudhary, Shivani Dugah, Joyti Kumar, Dinchak Pooja, Akash and Benafshaa Soonawala are getting zilch. Unless, of course, one of them wins the show’s prize money of Rs. 1 crore this season.

Peeping Moon.com sources say that reports that the Commoner could make money on Bigg Boss 11 by taking the show’s TRPs higher are not correct. That’s not there in their contract. The organizers are of the opinion that the growing success of the show is an opportunity for the Commoner to get popular and therefore the contract this season has no monetary compensation as before.

It is believed that TV actress Hina Khan who was last seen in Khatron Ke Khiladi is the highest paid of all Bigg Boss 11’s participants. Followed by Hiten Tejwani and Shilpa Shinde. Viewers who remain enthralled by the content of the show which keeps getting more personal and dirty each season, are wondering who will walk away with the trophy and prize money this year. Will it be a Commoner like Manveer Gurjar last year? Or will a Celebrity stake claim to Bigg Boss 11’s spoils this season?