Priyanka Chopra earned 10% of Male Co-Star’s Salary

Priyanka Chopra spoke about not getting equal pay to her male co-stars, revealing that in her early days, she would receive just 10% compared to what they would make.

The actress told BBC 100 Women about her early days in Bollywood. She also revealed that men earned special privileges on film sets.

Priyanka explained: “I’ve never had pay parity in Bollywood. I would get paid about 10% of the salary of my male co-actor.

“It’s (the pay gap) large, substantially large. And so many women still deal with that. I’m sure I will too if I worked with a male co-actor now in Bollywood.

“My generation of female actors have definitely asked (for equal pay). We’ve asked, but we’ve not got it.”

On the treatment she would get on film sets, Priyanka said:

“I thought it was absolutely OK to sit for hours and hours on set, while my male co-actor just took his own time, and decided whenever he wanted to show up on set is when we would shoot.”

Priyanka also detailed being body-shamed because of her complexion.

She recalled: “I was called ‘black cat’, ‘dusky’. I mean, what does ‘dusky’ even mean in a country where we are literally all brown?

“I thought I was not pretty enough, I believed that I would have to work a lot harder, even though I thought I was probably a little bit more talented than my fellow actors who were lighter skinned.

“But I thought that was right because it was so normalised.”

“Of course, that comes from our colonial past, it’s not even been 100 years since we shed the British Raj, so we still hold on to it, I think.

“But it is up to our generation to be able to cut those ties and change it so that the next generation doesn’t inherit the equity placed on light skin.”

Priyanka Chopra stated that she received equal pay for the first time in her 22-year career for her role in Citadel, which also stars Richard Madden.

She added: “Well, the first time it’s happened to me, it has happened in Hollywood. So I don’t know going forward.”

In Bollywood, Priyanka will make her comeback in Jee Le Zaraa, alongside Alia Bhatt and Katrina Kaif.

Jee Le Zaraa is reportedly set to begin production soon and will be ready for release in the summer of 2023.