Bhumi Pednekar and Tamannaah Bhatia speak about 'having an opinion' when offered lesser salaries

Actors Bhumi Pednekar and Tamannaah Bhatia shared their views about being offered a very small percentage of their male co-star's salary on a big-budget film. They were present for an roundtable along with actors Rakul Preet Singh, Huma Qureshi and Alaya F.

 

Bhumi Pednekar and Tamannah Bhatia shared their feelings about the pay inequality in the Indian film industry. The actors were present for an roundtable along with their colleagues Rakul Preet Singh, Huma Qureshi and Alaya F. The issue of female actors being offered a very small percentage of their male co-star's salary on a big-budget film came up in the group. The consensus among the actors was that they were not open taking up such offers any more and didn't want to see be seen as 'replaceable'.

Bhumi, who made her acting debut in 2015 with Dum Laga Ke Haisha, had three releases in 2022 with Badhaai Do, Raksha Bandhan and Govinda Naam Mera. She went on to say that no matter how good of a year female actors have, they always have to start anew with the new year.

In the roundtable interview with Bollywood Hungama, the actor stated, "Does that give us ease for next year? No, we are going to get into that. Because that's the reality of it." She also explained that female actors have had to do this in the past to further their careers because they had lesser options, but now things were changing. Things were different coming from a place of ambition versus a place of fear.

She went on to add that there was "power of saying no" and she began to do that early in her career, asking people to give her respect. Meanwhile, Tamannaah agreed with Bhumi and shared, "Unfortunately, even to put a point like that we have to feel apologetic about it, because all of us have been tuned to not take our due. If you're putting a point, it's offensive. Having an opinion translates into being tough to work with."

In 2022, Tamannaah was seen in the Telugu and Hindi films Ghani, F3: Fun and Frustration, Babli Bouncer, Plan A Plan B and Gurthunda Seethakalam. She will star opposite Nawazuddin Siddiqui in Bole Chudiyan later this year.

Bhumi is starring in Ajay Bahl's The Ladykiller with Arjun Kapoor and Anubhav Sinha's Bheed with Rajkummar Rao. She also has another untitled film with Arjun and Rakul for this coming year.

-HindustanTimes