The co-founder and CEO of BookMyBai has opened up about the incident that led him to ban Bollywood celebrities from his platform nearly 10 years ago. Anupam Sinhal spoke to Hindustantimes.com about the mistreatment of domestic workers, the safeguards his company has in place to deal with incidents of abuse, the evolving dynamics of domestic labour in post-COVID India and much more.
Maid agency owners reveal horror stories ) However, the final straw that led Sinhal to institute a ban on Bollywood was born out of a disturbing confrontation with physical abuse, where celebrity burned a woman domestic worker with an iron. The co-founder of BookMyBai explained that if a Bollywood celebrity contacts the company directly, they are not onboarded as clients. But if a lead comes to us directly as a cold lead, we do not service that celebrity at all,” Sinhal explained. He named several Indian celebrities who treat their domestic workers with respect and dignity. Mentioning figures like Alia Bhatt, Dia Mirza, Farah Khan, casting director Shanoo Sharma, cricketer Rohit Sharma, Sherlyn Chopra, and actor Tina Datta, Sinhal emphasized that some employers go above and beyond for their domestic staff. So the guy actually bought a house in Virar with the money that Alia gave him. So there are very, very good employers who are there in the celebrities also, but they are a handful. It depends on the definition of mistreatment. “With other high-net-worth individuals, I wouldn’t necessarily call it abuse, but there are occasional incidents. “Other than that, we don’t encounter too many major incidents now. Sinhal has observed a shift in attitude towards domestic workers post-COVID. He puts that down to people realising the value of labour.
In 2017, Anupam Sinhal announced in a blog post that BookMyBai had put a blanket ban on all Bollywood celebrities after dealing with several instances where celebrities abused domestic workers hired through their platform. I asked Anupam Sinhal whether the ban on Bollywood celebrities is still in place almost 10 years later. Highlighting an extraordinary gesture of generosity, he shared: “In fact, Alia Bhatt gave, I think, 50 lakh rupees to her cook that we had provided her with, saying, ‘Please go buy a house for yourself. For instance, if there is a party at a home, a worker might be required to stay up until 4:00 AM even if she didn’t want to,” he said.
Because she is vouching for that person, we service that celebrity, “If a reference comes directly through someone like Alia Bhatt—actually, Alia doesn’t talk to us directly, her mother Soni Razdan ma’am talks to us—and Soni ma’am calls saying, ‘She is my friend, please provide her a maid,’ then. Because they felt they had the power to do so, with Bollywood celebrities, it was explicit mistreatment—they did whatever they wanted.
He highlighted a few incidents that led to the ban — including one case of torture and another where “physical abuse of the maid was almost a daily affair”. “The Bollywood celebrity decision was taken the day a worker stepped into her office and she had burn marks on her body through the clothes iron because she accidentally burnt the clothes of that particular celebrity while she was ironing her clothes,” Sinhal revealed. “That is when we thought enough is enough and now we are not doing this anymore,” he added, saying that that one incident, in a long line of similar incidents, was the final straw. “Yes and no,” he answered. “If a celebrity contacts us directly that she needs a domestic helper, we flat outrightly refuse that we will not be able to provide you with the service because we have a blanket ban on this,” he stated. (Also read: Gurgaon condo assault video shows woman shoving, pulling domestic worker’s hair ) However, Sinhal clarified that exceptions are made through trusted personal references for celebrities who have built a proven track record of dignity and respect toward their staff. “ Alia Bhatt is very sweet, Dia Mirza is another,” said Sinhal. Anupam Sinhal pointed out that mistreatment of workers is not exclusive to Bollywood celebrities alone — “we have even dealt with cases of rape” — he revealed, but incidents among other High Net Worth Individuals are decidely rarer.
He also detailed instances of celebrities who refused to pay BookMyBai their previously agreed-upon fee, and at least one case of a star underpaying their domestic worker. (Also read: Do Bollywood celebs abuse their maids?
Sinhal, 40, is the Mumbai-based co-founder of BookMyBai, a platform that connects people with domestic workers. BookMyBai has a pan-India presence and operates a hyper-local marketplace app, where employers pay a flat ₹ 1,000 subscription to unlock contact details and hire nearby workers directly without a middleman. In 2018, Sinhal revealed in another blog post that the average worker hired through BookMyBai earns roughly ₹ 15,000 per month. He claims that worker salaries have also increased over the years. (Also read: Man renting Bengaluru 3BHK for ₹ 70,000 refuses to pay more than ₹ 3,500 for house help ) “For a cleaner, it is around 20,000 to 22,000 rupees per month. For a cook, starting salaries range from 25,000 rupees and above. For a good nanny, it is 30,000 rupees and above. Overall, average full-time salaries have increased from the 15,000 baseline to between 20,000 and 25,000 rupees,” he revealed. “New workers who join us are often working in households where they are underpaid—earning 7,000 to 9,000 rupees—and are hesitant to approach agencies out of fear of exploitation. Sinhal added that part-time workers operating across multiple households during set hourly windows are easily accumulating around ₹ 30,000 a month in major metros like Mumbai.
Because we align their pay with fair market rates,” he said, when they join BookMyBai, they often see a 2x jump in salary for the exact same job and hours. For full-time live-in care, it acts as a traditional staffing agency charging employers an upfront recruitment fee. “Post-COVID, we have seen a drastic positive change in employer behavior. “During COVID and after the lockdowns—when part-time workers couldn’t travel to houses—people realized the value of a live-in worker. When employers had to do household chores themselves, they understood that a family cannot function without a domestic helper. Sinhal also claimed that BookMyBai actively helps domestic workers get the correct market rate.
Earlier, workers were treated as “servants”; now they are treated as “domestic workers. the change in terminology reflects a major shift in attitude,” he said While the core role is similar.
