India, Feb. 8 -- Jaideep Ahlawat returned to his iconic role of Inspector Hathiram Chaudhary with the second season of Paatal Lok last month. The show, which streams on Amazon Prime Video, catapulted Ahlawat to nationwide stardom with season 1. As he basks in the show's success, the actor speaks to HT about his supposed rise in stature and journey so far. (Also read: Jaideep Ahlawat says Vijay Varma gave 'gaaliyan' when he won award for Maharaj: 'It aligns your system')

A social media post and several news reports that were circulated around the release of Paatal Lok 2 claimed that Jaideep had hiked his fees 50 times for the second season. "Jaideep Ahlawat charged Rs.40 lakh for Paatal Lok season 1 but increased it to Rs.20 crore for sea...