Celebrities come with an expensive price tag. If paid for a project less than what they think they deserve, then the producers will have to look for a different celebrity.
Calling the offer “disrespectful”, actor Sonam Kapoor reveals she turned down a film recently as she was being poorly paid. Without naming the film, Sonam divulged that the producers told her they did not have “enough” money as their last film with a star had failed. The Neerja star said the incident disheartened her for she believes she deserved a lot more after working in the industry for 10 years, and successfully.
“Recently I was offered a project, which I was excited for, but the money being paid was shit. I made a call and said, this is very disrespectful. There was shock on the other side. I told them, you put me in a position after being ten years in the industry, after giving the most profitable film Neerja a year ago, so please tell me why is it that this is what you decided to give me.
“They were like ‘Our last film with so and so star didn’t do well so we don’t have that much money.’ I was like, because of this xyz star whose film didn’t do well, the one person whose film actually did very well you want to underpay me to pay this ‘star’ more? I told them to move on and get someone else as frankly it was very disheartening,” Sonam said while drawing attention to the perpetual pay disparity between male and female actors.
The actor, who has always been outspoken about the gender bias in the film industry, also said that for women to progress in movies, it is important for them to stick together.
Sonam said due to competition there have been times when she took a stand and rejected a film on the basis of less pay, some other female actor offered to work on much lesser fee. This dilutes her fight to achieve an equal space for female actors, Sonam said.
“There’s too much competition. If I am saying ‘I am not going to do this’ and take a stand, there’ll be another woman who will say ‘it’s okay I’ll do it for this much.’ The point is, we need to stick together, be together. That is not going to happen if you’re constantly trying to pull each other down. It’s a very difficult upward climb,” she said.
Sonam made these comments at “We the Women” session, hosted by Barkha Dutt.
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