- Priyanka Chopra Jonas said bbc 100 women she used to earn 10% salary from her male co-workers in Bollywood.
- The actress also said she used to feel embarrassed about her “dark” complexion.
- Her role in “Citadel” marks the first time she has received the same salary as her male co-star, she said.
Despite a successful Bollywood career in which she starred in more than 60 films, Priyanka Chopra Jonas said bbc 100 women she was always paid less than her male co-stars.
“I’ve never had pay parity in Bollywood. I would get paid around 10% of my male co-actor’s salary,” said Chopra Jonas.
Even with the experience she has accumulated today, the actress believes she would still have to deal with a huge pay gap if she were to work with a male co-actor in Bollywood now, even though her generation of actresses have demanded the same pay.
“We’ve asked for it, but we don’t have it,” Chopra Jonas said.
Looking back on her days in the Indian film industry, the 40-year-old opened up about how normal it was to spend hours waiting for her male co-stars.
“I thought it was absolutely fine to sit for hours and hours on set while my male co-actor took his own time and decided that whenever he wanted to appear on set that would be when we would shoot,” she said.
Bollywood’s longstanding obsession with fair skin caused her to be ashamed of her body because of her complexion.
“They called me ‘black cat,’ ‘dark.’ I mean, what does ‘dark’ mean in a country where we’re literally all brown?” Chopra Jonas said. “But it’s up to our generation to be able to cut those ties and change them so the next generation doesn’t inherit the capital that’s put into light skin.”
Chopra Jonas’s role in the upcoming sci-fi series “Citadel”, which will be available on Amazon Prime Video, marks the first time in her 22-year career that she has been paid the same salary as her male co-star, she told BBC 100 Women. . .
