At a recent panel discussion titled ‘Women in Cinema’ at FICCI Frames 2023, actress Rakul Preet Singh expressed her views on the long-debated issue of equal pay for both male and female actors. Referring to actress Priyanka Chopra Jonas’ comments on her recent pay parity with a male co-actor for a project, Rakul said she had “a very different opinion.”
According to Rakul, an actor’s fee should be decided based on their ability to draw the audience to the theatre rather than their gender. She believes that pay parity should not be based on whether an actor is male or female but rather on the audience’s excitement to see a film.
“When we stop having these questions or conversations on pay parity based on men and women, then the scenario would change. Are you creating good content? Is the audience excited to see your film – whether you’re a male actor, female actor, character actor, whoever? If you’re attracting an audience, you should be paid based on some proportional math, but not on gender,” Rakul said.
Also part of the panel was filmmaker Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari, who directed “Bareilly Ki Barfi,” a 2017 romantic comedy headlined by Kriti Sanon and co-starring Ayushmann Khurrana and Rajkummar Rao. Ashwiny said the film changed the way people looked at Kriti Sanon as a performer and emphasized the importance of respect for all members of a film crew.
“I was very sure the actress would be with me because there’s a connect, there’s a gaze. But I really thank Ayushmann Khurrana and Rajkummar Rao for equally trusting in me that in the middle of Lucknow city, in the midst of a crowd of thousands, with my team, which had a lot of girls, and they were very supportive and said, ‘You know what, she’s the one helming.’ I think we all need respect,” the director said.
Overall, the panel highlighted the need for equal pay based on an actor’s audience draw rather than their gender and emphasized the importance of mutual respect on a film set.