The pay gap between male and female actors has long been a subject of debate in the Indian film industry, and has frequently drawn reactions from both stars and filmmakers. Saif Ali Khan recently reacted
to the issue of pay gap in Bollywood, but stated that the salaries for stars is largely driven by market value and box-office appeal, and not their gender. He said actors who can draw audiences to theatres are paid more and that this is a reality everyone in the industry understands.
Saif Ali Khan Opens Up On Pay Parity In Bollywood
Saif recently appeared on his sister Soha Ali Khan’s podcast on her YouTube channel, and they were also joined by Kunal Kemmu. While speaking about the debate around pay disparity in Bollywood, Saif and Kunal stated that the salaries are largely driven by box office economics, and that gender has nothing to do with it. Saif said that he believes actors of equal stature should ideally be paid the same, but added that pay in the industry ultimately follows economic realities, and those who draw larger audiences to theatres get paid more.
“If the actors are of equal stature, they should be paid the same amount. But I also feel the economics work in a certain way. If you are putting people in seats in the theatre, you get paid accordingly. Everyone understands that relationship,” he said.
He further said that gender has nothing to do with it, and that the pay depends on the actor’s box-office pull. “It’s not like just because you are a certain gender you deserve to be paid more or less. It’s actually a very balanced economic system where people are clear that this person is a superstar because they are filling theatres. They know their worth, charge that price and get paid,” he added.
Kunal Kemmu On Actors’ Pay In Bollywood
Meanwhile, Kunal Kemmu added that there’s a ‘math’ behind actors’ remunerations. “This is the mathematical part, not whether a film will work or not — that’s a different thing. Earlier, distributors knew that if I have this actor, I can sell a territory for a certain amount of money and that becomes part of the recovery,” he said.
