Kareena Kapoor Khan questions Anil Kapoor about pay parity in Bollywood; his response leaves her stumped

Tribune Web Desk
Chandigarh, January 2

Kareena Kapoor Khan recently hosted actor Anil Kapoor and filmmaker Anurag Kashyap on her radio show, ‘What Women Want’.

During their conversation about women rights, Kareena questioned Anil about pay parity in Bollywood. 

Kareena added, that if the wage gap between the salaries of the leading men and women, in the industry, should also be addressed. 

Kareena said that men in Hollywood stood up for female co-stars demanding equal pay for women and asked if Hindi film actors should do the same. 

“You toh took a lot of money from me,” Anil told Kareena, leaving her momentarily stumped. She said, “We are breaking barriers, we are doing that. But like you said, there are still some people…”

Anil narrated an incident when the producers called him when the negotiations with Kareena were on for Veere Di Wedding: “’Yaar, yeh toh hero se zyada paise maang rahi hai.’ Maine bola, ‘De do (‘She is demanding more money than the hero.’ I said, ‘Give it to her).’ They all called me up also, I said, ‘Done.’ They were calling me when the negotiations were on. I said, ‘Bebo jo maangegi, de do (Give Kareena what she wants).’”

Anil also revealed that he has no qualms in being paid lesser than his female co-star, and it has happened on several occasions. 

“There are so many films where the leading actress has taken more money and maine khushi khushi kiya (I did the films happily),” he said.

Kareena has starred with Anil in films such as ‘Bewafaa’ and ‘Tashan’. They will next be seen in Karan Johar’s period drama, ‘Takht’, which also stars Ranveer Singh, Alia Bhatt, Janhvi Kapoor, Vicky Kaushal and Bhumi Pednekar.

‘Takht’ was supposed to begin shooting in Europe last March but got indefinitely postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.