Daily Times

Bollywood actor Huma Qureshi rued the prevailing pay inequality in the film industry, among male and female actors, as well as the star power attached to the paychecks and screen time.

In a new interview with a digital magazine, actor Huma Qureshi was honest about the pay disparity in Bollywood, which she believed is high time needs to change.

Upon being asked if film paychecks are decided on the basis of star power and screen time, Qureshi dismissed and replied, “The conventional way is: the bigger the star, the more money they take home, oftentimes, even when their screen time is shorter and their roles are smaller.”

With reference to her own brief song appearance in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’, the ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ star added, “Alia Bhatt will draw more money than others even if her part is small. I am assuming that she was the highest-paid actor in Gangubai Kathiawadi.”

“Unfortunately, in our films, women are often not paid as much as men are even if they’re at the same level of stardom. There is a bias that a male actor needs to be paid more because the film’s story is always revolving around the male protagonist. It is quite unfortunate,” Qureshi lamented. She claimed that producers get more budget for male superstars than female ones, even if they are on the same level of stardom.

“That’s a fact. If two actors are playing my parents, the guy playing my father will probably get paid a little more than the female actor playing the role of my mother. The mentality is ‘Yeh toh aise hi chalta aa raha hai (This has been going on like this)’ and comes from the idea that women are replaceable. They think ‘koi na koi heroine toh mil hi jaegi (We will find some or the other actress)’,” Qureshi exclaimed.

On the film front, Huma Qureshi will be next seen in Navjot Gulati and Vipasha Arvind’s thriller flick ‘Pooja Meri Jaan’, co-starring Mrunal Thakur and Vijay Raaz.

Meanwhile, she is also busy promoting her debut novel, titled ‘Zeba’.