Vidya Balan opens up on breaking stereotypes and pay parity!

Bollywood diva Vidya Balan has always been the pioneer of women led movies in Bollywood and she began the trend with movies like No One Killed Jessica, Kahani, The Dirty Picture, Ishqiya and many more.

 

On International Women’s Day, the Kahani star got in a candid chat with a media source, discussing about her different film choices, the stereotypes she broke through her journey in Bollywood as also body shaming, pay parity and her forthcoming movie, Sherni. Speaking about bringing the number game in forefront for the woman in Bollywood, Vidya reveals, “It’s all about timing. I didn’t decide in my head that I want to be doing female centric cinema that’s commercially viable. There was no plan or strategy, I just responded to content that was offered to me. I just happened to be an actor in it.”

 

On the pay parity of men and women in the industry. She revealed, “I definitely think, we have a long way to go before we get the kind of money that our male counterparts get. I do understand that filmmaking is a business, and the so called female centric cinema and it’s success is a recent phenomenon. Therefore, people are pushing the envelope one step at a time. Our budgets will increase and we will get bigger number in fees. Though things have definitely improved, we still have a long way to go. If you compare just the ratio of how much a male actor gets out of the budget and how much a female actress gets out of the budget of a film, it’s the same. Which is why am saying, if the budget of film increases, the pay will also increase.”

 

During the chat, she also disclosed that shooting in the jungles for Sherni was a great experience and she discovered connect between humans and nature through the shoot.