Gender pay parity in Bollywood: Not just SRK, how much did Nayanthara get paid for Jawan

Nayanthara, the queen of Kollywood will make her Hindi film debut with Jawan. She will be seen assisting Vikram in his quest to right society’s wrongs. According to reports, the South actress received an estimated fee of $1.2 million (Rs 10 crore) for her work in the movie, as per various reports. It’s great to know that a female lead is getting paid a whooping amount for her role.

With this movie, Priyamani who is collaborating with Shah Rukh Khan for the second time after Chennai Express, according to reports, the actress demanded $243,143 (Rs 2 crore) for the movie. She will be a member of the female crew that Vikram, played by SRK, would lead.

Not just the Indian film industry or Bollywood, gender pay gap is real and harsh across the global entertainment industry. Beginning of this year, actress Samantha Ruth Prabhu opened up about the gender pay gap. She mentioned how gender pay gap is a yawning maw.

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In an interview with Pinkvilla, Samantha shared how she may not be fighting directly, but that she is fighting hard, saying, “It’s not like I am fighting to be paid equally, I want it to be a by-product of the hard work and success. People should just come and say, ‘Yes, we want to pay you this much’. I shouldn’t have to beg for it. I believe that comes with an incredible amount of hard work.”

Samantha took to social media and had written, “Whatever your capabilities, you must stretch them to the limit and a little beyond’, but that as a woman in the film world, “it’s not just enough to stretch your capabilities to your limits but then you need that a little more. There’s stress on a ‘little more’ because it’s just that much harder.”

It is a welcome change to see that SRK's Jawan is paying the woman actresses handsomely because gender pay gap in the entertainment industry is not just a Bollywood phenomenon, it’s a global problem. And why just entertainment industry, it is across all industries, women are paid lesser than men.

The Basic Instinct actress, Sharon Stone once in an interview with Firtspost said, “would like to have directed” after her breakthrough role in Paul Verhoeven’s erotic thriller Basic Instinct in 1992, but wasn’t allowed to do so due to her gender. At the Red Sea International Film Festival, Sharon Stone said, “I went to the studio and asked them for a small budget,” said Stone. “And I was laughed out of the room; I was told ‘women don’t direct’.”

Basic Instincts completed thirty years early this year. Sharon Stone in a conversation  at the second edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival  said the difference between her Basic Instinct salary and that of co-star Michael Douglas meant she was not able to feel secure after the film made her famous. “I made $500,000, and Michael Douglas made $14m,” said Stone. “Michael could afford the car, driver, bodyguard. I had to move because people were on my roof and breaking my door down. I couldn’t afford the things I needed because of the sudden fame I had.”