Shah Rukh Khan has been crowned the Badshah of Bollywood not only for his acting talent and charm but also for his intelligence and quick-wit. He’s a great speaker and his TED Talks series is a proof of that. Recently, in an interview with a leading daily, he spoke about pay disparity in Bollywood and how female actors should be paid equal to male actors.
He said, “It’s a male-dominated industry. You can’t shirk it away or ignore it. I would love it to be different. There should be no disparity. A male actor and a female actor should get the same fees — why is it different, I don’t know. But I would also add that no actor — male or female — should over-estimate their performance. No individual — be it director or actor — should burden the film’s expense by charging an amount that goes beyond the performance of the film’s opening weekend.”
Shah Rukh Khan is known to do his bit to give his leading ladies their due credit. All his films have the names of his female lead first in the rolling credits. But not much has changed in Bollywood about unequal fees and many celebs, previously, have spoken about it.
Priyanka Chopra expressed her displeasure over the disparity in an interview. She said that she feels bad about the fact that she gets paid less than the men, even though she has worked as hard as them.
Anushka Sharma also spoke about the issue saying, “If there is an actor of the same stature as me, he would still be paid more than me because he is a guy. Men can work as long as they want to, but women are only okay until they are young and desirable. If you’re on an outdoor shoot, you know that the guy is going to get a better room than you. Why?”
Well, we do hope the gap between the pay of two genders vanishes in all the industries and we start appreciating the hard work that women put in!
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