Taapsee Pannu opens up on pay disparity in Bollywood: Rules are quite unfair, I'm asking for equality
Bollywood has a long way to go as far before pay parity between male and female actors happens, actress Tapsee Pannu claimed on Saturday, hoping that gender-neutral wages would become a reality in her lifetime."We have a long way to go. It is insane," Taapsee said, at an interactive session during the ongoing 50th edition of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), which is underway in Goa.
She said the amount that actresses get in Bollywood are "not even half of (what) the leading men (get paid)", and added: "It is way less than one-fourth at times -- to be honest, even less. Half of the salary of the leading hero is the entire budget of a female-driven film of an A-list actress," Taapsee said.
In another candid chat with Neha Dhupia on her podcast No Filter Neha, Taapsee opened up about the pay gap, not being credited enough for her work and more.
Asked if the pay gap bothers her, Taapsee told Neha, “Of course it does! When I’m paid only 5% to 10% of my heroes, of course it bothers me. The success at the box office will make sure the next film I get paid a lot which is slowly moving towards equalizing that difference. Rules are quite unfair, not just in our industry but maybe in every other industry. Because we are here, we see it more. But rules are different everywhere. And that’s what the fight is for, that’s what the struggle is right now, the whole issue of gender equality is that let’s make the rules equal. I’m not asking for an edge over them, I’m asking for equality.”
The 'Pink' actress also said that at times, even top female leads were paid one-fourth of the remuneration paid to a male star, and added that only box-office success of women-oriented films would end the sexist lopsidedness.
"I hope it changes in my lifetime. That can happen when more and more people walk into a female-driven film in theatres. Only box-office can change this. Yes, women-driven films have increased drastically over the last four to five years but the big difference will happen when the (box-office) numbers come in. There is no other way," she summed it up.
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