Actress Pooja Hegde spoke up about pay disparity in the film industry, and said that because women are making Rs 100-crore budget films now, they will hopefully get paid as much as the men. She acted opposite Hrithik Roshan in Mohenjo Daro, and will soon be seen in the Akshay Kumar-starrer Housefull 4.
Citing the examples of Veere Di Wedding and Raazi – women driven films which released last year and did well at the box office, the actress said that like men, women too are pulling crowds to the theatres.
“If you look at the trend that’s going on, female-driven films are doing very well,” said the actress, according to NDTV. The main argument raised in favour of the prevailing pay disparity is that the men are able to pull more crowds to a movie.
According to Pooja Hegde, “2018 definitely belonged to women, and I am hoping 2019 will also be the same. People are making female-oriented films.”
“They are all doing really well. So, I am hoping that now that the women are also pulling in 100-crore films… I think they are going to get paid as much as the men,” said the actress. “But we need more female producers also to help us out there… something that has to be collective effort (to achieve wage parity),” she added.
After starting off with Ashutosh Gowariker’s Mohenjo Daro (2016), the actress worked on a couple of films in South including Aravinda Sametha Veera Raghava, Sakshyam, Rangasthalam and DJ. She is now making a comeback to Hindi with the fourth installment in the successful Houseful series.
She shares the screen with Akshay Kumar, Ritesh Deshmukh, Bobby Deol, Kriti Kharbanda and Kriti Sanon. Talking about her experience of working with the team, she said, “They are so good at comedy. To learn from them was the best thing and I was like a baby on the set like a newcomer because I have not done this before, it was great.”
The actress is also awaiting the release of Mahesh Babu’s Maharshi.