Earlier than she turned a large international star, Priyanka Chopra Jonas was one of many highest-paid Bollywood celebrities.

However the actress, producer and entrepreneur has sparked renewed discussions about pay disparity after revealing that even throughout her heyday in India, she solely earned 10 per cent of her male co-star’s wage.

“I’ve by no means had pay parity in Bollywood. [The pay gap] is massive, considerably massive. And so many ladies nonetheless cope with that. I am positive I’ll too if I labored with a male co-actor now in Bollywood,” she just lately advised BBC in an interview.

“My technology of feminine actors have positively requested [for equal pay]. We have requested, however we have not bought it.”

The interview was carried out as a part of the annual BBC 100 Girls listing for 2022, a compilation of inspiring and influential girls from world wide. Included within the listing this 12 months together with Chopra Jonas are international music phenomenon Billie Eilish, Ukraine’s First Girl Olena Zelenska, actress Selma Blair, Iranian climber Elnaz Rekabi and Ghanaian writer Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah.

Chopra Jonas, who turned a global star after being solid within the hit US collection Quantico in 2015, has solely appeared in two Hindi movies since, the final one being the 2019 movie The Sky is Pink, which she additionally produced.

She made her Bollywood debut in 2003 with The Hero: Love Story of a Spy, following her Miss World win in 2000, and has since appeared in additional than 60 movies, lots of them alongside a few of India’s largest stars.

Chopra Jonas, who has starred in plenty of Hollywood movies, together with Baywatch, Is not it Romantic and The Matrix Resurrections, says for the primary time in her 22-year profession, she’s being given equal pay to her male co-actor. She is ready to star within the Amazon science fiction collection, Citadel, directed by Anthony and Joseph Russo. The present, probably the most costly ever, additionally stars Richard Madden and Stanley Tucci.

“Effectively, the primary time it is occurred to me, it has occurred in Hollywood. So I do not know going ahead. As a result of this was my first present with a male actor as a co-lead,” Chopra Jonas advised the BBC.

Whereas feminine actors in Hollywood have lengthy spoken concerning the want for pay parity, the hole is believed to be notably large in India’s movie trade. Based on Yahoo! Finance, prime earner Akshay Kumar reportedly fees near 1.3 billion rupees ($15.7 million) for a movie whereas one of many highest-paid actresses, Deepika Padukone, is claimed to cost 150 million rupees ($1.8 million) per film.

The World Financial Discussion board’s International Gender Hole Index for 2022 ranks India at 135 out of 146 international locations.

“If a feminine actor asks extra, she is termed tough and problematic and if a person asks extra, it’s a mark of his success. Distinction is, the boys who began with me earn three to 5 instances greater than what I do. And the hole retains growing as we go in larger star class,” Bollywood actress Taapsee Pannu advised The Nationwide Bulletin final 12 months.

Within the BBC interview, Chopra Jonas additionally spoke about deep-rooted patriarchy within the trade.

“I believed it was completely OK to sit down for hours and hours on set, whereas my male co-actor simply took his personal time, and determined every time he needed to point out up on set is after we would shoot,” she mentioned.

Chopra Jonas married singer and actor Nick Jonas in 2018. The couple share a daughter, Malti Marie Chopra Jonas, who was born in January by way of surrogacy. Apart from appearing in and producing movies, Chopra Jonas can also be a serial investor with pursuits in plenty of tech start-ups, together with the relationship app Bumble. Final 12 months, she launched her haircare line Anomaly and opened Indian restaurant Sona in Manhattan.

Up to date: December 07, 2022, 1:44 PM