The recent news of Deepika Padukone being offered a Rs 12 crore pay cheque for Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s new film Padmavati is the first concrete sign that suggests a turning of the tide for the actress in Hindi cinema. It’s not the amount that is worth rejoicing, for the male lead in the film, Ranveer Singh, would probably get paid more, as might Shahid Kapoor, rumoured to have been finalised for the second lead.
Neither is the fact that Padukone is the first actress to officially transcend the Rs 10 crore barrier reason enough for celebration as this amount is a pittance when compared what the top male stars such as Salman Khan, Aamir Khan, Akshay Kumar, or Hrithik Roshan take home.
What makes the news special is perhaps for the first time a heroine has been "pursued" to be a part of a production and this would somewhere, hopefully, change the way actresses are associated with a project.
Inequality
There is no denying that actresses across the world fight a double-edged sword. Good roles start drying up as soon as they hit their mid-30s while the men only begin to come into their own and hit the best phase of their careers at the same age. Moreover, actresses are also automatically assumed to take a salary cut when it comes to roles with leading filmmakers.