Bhumi Pednekar and Tamannaah Bhatia speak on lesser salaries

• Tamannah and Bhumi discussed their opinions on the disparity in compensation.
• This happened in a roundtable discussion with other actors as well.
• They discussed being paid a smaller portion of their male co-stars’ salaries.

Tamannah Bhatia and Bhumi Pednekar discussed their opinions on the disparity in compensation in the Indian film business. Along with the actors’ coworkers Alaya F, Rakul Preet Singh, and Huma Qureshi, a roundtable discussion was held. The panel discussed the topic of female performers on high-budget films being paid a relatively small portion of their male co-stars’ salaries. The performers all agreed that they were no longer open to accepting such offers and did not want to be perceived as “replaceable.”

Pednekar has three releases in 2022 with Badhaai Do, Raksha Bandhan, and Govinda Naam Mera after making her acting debut in 2015 with Dum Laga Ke Haisha. She continued by saying that every year, regardless of how successful a year female performers have, they must relaunch themselves.

In the roundtable interview, the actor stated, “Does that give us ease for next year? No, we are going to get into that. Because that’s the reality of it.” She also explained that female actors have had to do this in the past to further their careers because they had lesser options, but now things were changing. Things were different coming from a place of ambition versus a place of fear.

She continued by claiming that she learned the “power of saying no” early in her profession and started by requesting respect from others. Tamannaah agreed with Bhumi in the meanwhile and said, “Unfortunately, even to put a point like that we have to feel apologetic about it, because all of us have been tuned to not take our due. If you’re putting a point, it’s offensive. Having an opinion translates into being tough to work with.”

Tamannaah appeared in the Telugu and Hindi movies Gurthunda Seethakalam and Gurthunda F3: Fun and Frustration in 2022. Later this year, she will appear in Bole Chudiyan alongside Nawazuddin Siddiqui.

Arjun Kapoor and Bheed, directed by Anubhav Sinha, both feature Bhumi as a leading lady. Bheed also stars Rajkummar Rao. Additionally, she will star alongside Arjun and Rakul in another untitled movie next year.