If you feel that you’re being paid less in comparison to your male counterpart at work, and are being given fewer opportunities and responsibilities once you get married or have a baby then you my friend, are not alone.
Even the Hindi film industry is plagued by ageism, pay disparity, and discrimination against women. But thankfully, the actors of today like Rasika Dugal, Sonam Kapoor, Sonakshi Sinha, Kriti Sanon, Radhika Apte, and Kangana Ranaut are voicing against it to see a more inclusive and unbiased industry. But this has been happening since time immemorial in Bollywood.
Recently, veteran actors Asha Parekh and Tanuja spoke about how ageism and pay parity exists in the industry during a talk session titled ‘Maitri: Female First Collective’.
The 80-year-old ‘Kati Patang’ actor, Parekh pointed out that if women got married, their career was finished.
“For women, those days it was like if they got married, their career was finished. Now it is not so. So the hero’s maybe 50 or 55 years they are working with 20-year-olds and that is acceptable till today.”
When asked what they feel about the fact that despite being a superstar, one day, good roles stop coming to them but their male co-stars continue to get roles, Parekh said:
“Today, Mr. Amitabh Bachchan, at this age also, people are writing roles for him. Why aren’t people writing roles for us? We also should be getting some roles which are important to the film. That’s not there. Either we are playing mother, grandmother or we are playing the sister. Who’s interested?”
When quizzed if the male and female actors were paid equally at that time, Parekh said:
“Payment was always a problem, previously and even now. It’s always the men standing up for money and we want to know why.”
When the moderator said that it has become a male-dominated industry and only men have been making rules, Tanuja responded:
“We can’t blame the guys. How can we blame them? We allowed them to do so. We gave them permission to rule.”
To this, Parekh adds, “In every field. And now when we see women becoming CEOs, I really feel great.”
The Jubilee actors also recalled that the sets lacked something as basic as a washroom for them.
“We used to feel shy to say, ‘ There are no bathrooms.’ The studio just had one bathroom for everybody, and it was horrible. We used to sit from morning to evening, not going to the bathroom.”
But despite all the prejudice, Tanuja decided to call the shots and decided what rules she would follow. Telling female actors to prioritize themselves, the ‘Haathi Mere Saathi’ actor said:
“These are rules that are created, but it is up to us (to decide) what is important. Looking at my own life, I decided, ‘Okay, I am not going to be number one or two, but I will make my place in this world’ and I did. I have never broken any rules in my life because I make the rules.”
Earlier, on multiple occasions, people have called out the problematic age gap between male and female co-stars in Bollywood. Clearly, these are the problems that have been there for ages and sadly Bollywood hasn’t been able to fix this.