Equal pay is a long way away

Last month, one of Bollywood’s most powerful actors acknowledged the gender pay gap was indeed, “a problem”.

In an interview with a British press agency, shortly after he was honoured with a doctorate degree from the University of Edinburgh, King Khan said the industry’s woman employees put in equal effort, but often “find it difficult to achieve the stardom that male actors like himself achieve”. And according to him, the road towards improvement could start with equal pay.

“We can start with pay being equal. In our company, we believe in putting female stars’ names before the male stars’ names. These are insignificant things in comparison to what needs to be done, but having said that, when I see women working in Bollywood, or other industries, I feel there is a certain movement of equality,” he had said.

But on the ground, the reality is full of stumbling blocks and a push for equal pay relies on several factors. Also, while many Hollywood actresses are fighting on frontlines for this solution — including Meryl Streep, Jessica Chastain, Gwyneth Paltrow and others — our actresses seem to be fighting the entire process of filmmaking — right from the scripting.

Because yes, we’re still worshipping our male leads. Kalki Koechlin agrees, “First the society has to change. Ours is a hero-oriented society so, it will take time for producers to pay women the same as men.”

Filmmaker Madhura Sridhar, who’s slated to launch Chiranjeevi’s niece Niharika into the Telugu film industry, says stories are written keeping male actors in mind. “Showbiz is hero-oriented. A Salman Khan, who has worked with Bhagyashree, can also work with a Sonam Kapoor. Can you say that about an actress?” asks Sridhar.

Here, producers are also playing it safe even as Hollywood’s mulling a possible elimination of the gender pay gap. For them, “it’s just business”.

“We have no issues paying actresses more but are they willing to guarantee good returns on our investment? There’s no gender bias, it’s just plain business. If you cast a top actress opposite a new hero, the film’s collections would be 1/10th of that of a Bajrangi Bhaijaan (starring Salman Khan). The ground reality is that the market is male-driven. But if an actress can deliver a PK, the producer would have no issues in paying her more,” says producer Mukesh Bhatt

Baahubali producer Shobu Yarlagadda adds: “The remuneration depends on factors such as an artiste’s commercial value, market value, a project’s budget, talent, genre of a film, etc. It has nothing to do with the gender. For instance, if it’s a film like Arundhati or Rudhramadevi, it will be called Anushka’s film. A star, who has the power to pull in the audiences, will be automatically paid as per their standing. Sometimes, it could also be the director who’s more popular than the star-cast of a film.”

‘Heroes must cut their pay’
There’s another argument developing... asking why in the world are heroes paid so much, even when they deliver the biggest duds!

Producer Tanuj Garg says: “Today, apart from the three Khans, no other male actor can command a certain box-office return. In the past three years, there are actors whose movies have bombed but they continue to be grossly overpaid so why don’t they take a pay-cut?” Madhura Sridhar backs the angle. “It is high time we asked producers why are they willing to shell these big amount sums for male actors.”

Overall then, change could take a while. Because even as we ask for the industry to change and bridge the pay gap, top producers maintain a movie with an equally-paid female lead could cause financial harm as female leads simply don’t figure in the film-making process.

“It’s sad but it’s the reality. We aren’t even paid one tenth of our male co-stars most of the times,” says actress Tapsee. I don’t know where it all began but the practice definitely needs to change. This pay difference is justified by producers who say market value of a project is solely dependent on the hero or the director-hero combo — least likely the actress. This parity is much more pronounced in the South, because we barely have leading female stars doing any of these “female-oriented films” for them to have an equal paycheque.

“We work equally hard, if not more. Also, they say the number of males watching movies is higher at cinemas, which is why male actors have a bigger following. Well, then there’s something severely weird if all men want to see only male actors on screen. Or, maybe it’s just a reflection of the male-dominated society we live in.”

It's time for a raise!
She one’s of Bollywood’s highest paid actresses. Deepika Padukone commands a sum between Rs 7 to Rs 9 crore per film. But relative newcomer Ranveer Singh takes home Rs 15 to Rs 20 crore. In fact, Deepika has been part of one of this year’s biggest hits — Piku. And that movie didn’t star any major hero

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