Daily Times

There has been a lot of debate around the gender wage gap and whether it exists in Bollywood. One viewpoint leans towards the argument that female actors are paid significantly lesser than their male counterparts. However, the other argument believes this isn’t always true and that people are paid on merit rather than based on their gender. In 2018, during an interview with director Shoojit Sircar, Bollywood actor Abhishek Bachchan decided to weigh in on this debate and revealed a shocking fact about pay difference between him and his wife Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.

He revealed that Aishwarya was actually paid more than him in eight out of the nine films they worked together for. He also said that the pay is dependent on your saleability as an actor and not on one’s gender.

He said, “There’s a huge debate on gender parity in the film business and in other industries. I’ve worked in nine films with my wife and in eight of those, she’s got paid more than I have. The highest-paid actor in Piku was Deepika. It’s a business and if you are a saleable actor, you get paid accordingly. You can’t be a new actress and demand to be paid the same as Shah Rukh Khan.”

Together Abhi-Ash has featured in several hit Bollywood films such as Guru, Dhoom 2, Kuch Na Kaho, Dhai Akhsar Prem Ke, Sarkar Raj, Bunty Aur Babli and Umrao Jaan among others.

Aishwarya and Abhishek Bachchan got married on April 20, 2007. The duo has a daughter named Aaradhya Bachchan. In 2009, they appeared together on The Oprah Winfrey Show and hogged all the attention, with comparisons being drawn with Brangelina.