Are Bollywood Actress Paid Less?

It seems there is an uprising among the Bollywood actresses who have for the first time come out in open complaining that they are been underpaid. Bollywood’s number one actress Kareena Kapoor has declared that there is a huge difference between the remuneration given to male stars as compared to their female counterparts. 

According to Kareena, “There’s a difference of several zeroes in the pay cheque that I get vis-a-vis the Khans.” Likewise Katrina Kaif feels. When asked about the partiality she candidly replied, “It is true that there’s a huge disparity among what female stars get than male actors. In fact ever since I have made my debut in Bollywood the remuneration for lady stars hasn’t changed.” 

A look at the remuneration charged by the three Khans of the industry viz. Shah Rukh, Salman and Aamir is approximately in the range of Rs. 35 crore to Rs 40 crore as acting fee per film. In contrast the actresses are paid between Rs 5 to 7 crore as acting fee per film. According to a trade magazine top Bollywood actresses like Deepika Padukone, Priyanka Chopra and Katrina Kaif get about Rs. 5 crore, while Kareena Kapoor and Vidya Balan around 7 crore. 

The other top actresses like Priyanka Chopra, Vidya Balan and Kangana Ranaut too feel the remuneration offered to female actress is very less and must be increased. Priyanka terms the remuneration to female actresses as insane, while Vidya Balan says, “If a movie is a typically commercial films in which the film producers earns millions of crore than the female actresses too should be paid handsomely.” 

Defending the film producers Vashu Bhagnani, who has made many hit movies said, “The reason is that not many heroine oriented movies are made in Bollywood. If more women-­oriented films are made and appreciated by the audiences, then even the producers will be happy to pay more to female actors.” 

Filmmaker Vipul Shah, supporting the film producers said, “The fee that we give to any star is actually decided upon by a stars’ market value hence producer is not at fault.”