There has been an ongoing debate about pay disparity in Bollywood for years. Many actresses have called out the gender pay gap between them and male actors. Remember when, in an interview with the BBC, global icon Priyanka Chopra spoke about being paid 10 percent of her male co-star’s fees in Bollywood movies? On the other hand, actor Vikrant Massey once shared that his female co-stars are paid more than him despite his ‘body of work’ in showbiz.
This debate keeps on happening, meanwhile, no one really talks about the ‘offensive’ pay disparity between cast and the crew of a movie. Filmmaker Karan Johar once addressed it in an interview while wishing to pay more to technical crew members.
In a video posted by an Instagram user, @editorhariharan, originally from Film Companion’s FC Producers Adda 2021, KJo can be seen acknowledging that such pay disparity exists. “I would rather pay top dollar and much more to members of the technical crew who really make your film special,” KJo says in the clip.
“Why am I paying this actor over 15 crores and I am paying my editor 55 lakhs? It’s not making any sense to me that has suddenly become the market norm…If (crew members) are delivering, they must be paid,” he adds. “Even in my production house, the mindset is like, ‘why are we paying the writer so much?’ But how dare you say that? The film is good because of the writing,” the filmmaker-producer says further.
Watch the full video here:
Here’s how netizens are reacting to it:
Many Instagram users feel that Karan Johar’s statements are making sense and rightly so.
What do you think about pay disparity between the cast and the crew? Do you agree with KJo?