Mallika Dua says Zakir Khan was paid twice as much as her for Great Indian Laughter Challenge

In the wake of writer-comedian Utsav Chakraborty being accused of sexually harassing multiple women and girls, several tweets bearing screenshots from a former intern at OML surfaced, alleging that despite her complaining to OML about Utsav's misconduct towards her, the talent management company did not take actions against him. Now, comedienne-actress Mallika Dua has shared that her fellow comedian Zakir Khan was paid more than double the amount paid to her for The Great India Laughter Challenge, adding that the deal was finalised by OML on behalf on her. [caption id="attachment_5330121" align="alignnone" width="825"]

Mallika Dua. Image via Facebook[/caption]

While a number of celebrities, including actresses Priyanka Chopra and Sonam Kapooor Ahuja, have earlier spoken about gender pay disparity across all industries,  Monster Salary Index report, based on data collected from the paycheck.in salary calculator, reflected that there was a 25.4 percent gender pay gap in India in the year 2016.  In March 2017, it was reported that women earned 25 percent less than men, indicating that there has been no major change in pay gap in a span of a year.Mallika recently also commented on Tanmay Bhat's acknowledgement of Utsav's alleged deeds, stating that he should have been more aware in his dealings with Chakraborty. She also said, "This toxic, sexist, bro culture in comedy is nauseating and quite easy to ignore until we or one of our own becomes a casualty," in her reply to Tanmay's apology tweet.We have reached out to Zakir Khan and OML for a response.