In a freewheeling interview with The Times of India, actress Aishwarya Rajesh opened up about being a now-top actress in the industry, but still not earning like one. Shedding light on the struggle of getting paid for the work she did, Aishwarya insisted that despite achieving success, very little has changed.
“I don’t even own a house and I’m still staying in a rented house. I drive a simple i10 car. While some offer good salary for a mokkai film, a small production house that gives me a good role may not be ready to offer a big salary. So, most of the time, I compromise on salary for the sake of the role. I think I might get my dream salary only when the combination of solid roles and high remuneration comes my way,” she told ToI.
Aishwarya’s tryst with cinema was unfairytale-like, she said, adding that it took her a while to finally get where she wanted.
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“I used to visit one production house every day and I used to take up auditions even for small roles. Before my debut, I must have auditioned at almost every single production house. The funniest part was that, after every audition, the production house people would tell me, ‘You are the heroine’. Overwhelmed by their words, I would come home and tell my mom that, I’m going to be the heroine of some four or five films. But during the film’s puja, someone else would be announced as the heroine. This had been my luck for a very long time. I was being offered only kutty roles. I was even offered roles opposite comedians in some films,” she said, adding that even workshops treated a newcomer differently.
Read: Silverscreen’s Interview with Aishwarya Rajesh
With around seven years of experience in the industry now, the National Award-winning actress has nearly 30 films to her credit – some of which have won critical acclaim, and others that are soon-to release. In the pipeline, she has Gautham Menon’s Dhruva Natchathiram, Vetrimaaran’s Vada Chennai, a Hindi film called Daddy with Arjun Rampal, and Idhu Vedhalam Sollum Kadhai.