Kangana Ranaut blows the lid off Bollywood's patriarchal norms; shares Priyanka Chopra's video

Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut is yet again grabbing the headlines with her latest statements on the pay disparity in Bollywood. The actress, who has been at the forefront of addressing the issue of nepotism in the industry, has now claimed that she is the only one who gets paid on par with male actors, while many A-list actresses allegedly work for free.

Taking to her Instagram story, Kangana reacted to an interview with Priyanka Chopra where Priyanka candidly discussed the pay gap in Bollywood. 

The Thalaivii actress expressed her views on the matter, stating that she was the first one to fight for pay parity and faced the disgusting reality of her contemporaries offering to work for free on the same roles she was negotiating for. She further alleged that most A-list actresses work for free and offer other favours out of fear that roles will be taken away from them. Kangana also criticized the practice of these actresses releasing articles claiming to be the highest-paid while she maintains that she is the only one truly paid like male actors.

The Queen actress wrote, “It’s true women before me simply submitted to these patriarchal norms… I was the first one to fight for pay parity and the most disgusting thing that I faced while doing this was that my contemporaries offered to work for free on the same roles that I was negotiating for… I can say with confidence most A-listers (women) do films for free along with offering other favours because they fear roles will go to the right people… and then shrewdly release articles that they are the highest paid, haha… in the film industry everyone knows that only I get paid like male actors and no one else… and they have no one else to blame at least now."

Priyanka Chopra, during her interview, revealed that she has never experienced pay parity in Bollywood despite working in nearly 60 movies. She stated that she would usually receive about 10% of what her male co-actors were paid, highlighting the substantial pay gap that many actresses still face in the industry. During the interview, Priyanka Chopra said, “I have never had pay parity in Bollywood. I have done almost 60 movies there, but I have never got paid the same amount as my male co-actor. I would get paid about 10 per cent of my male co-actor. It (the pay gap) is substantially large and so many girls still deal with that.”

While on the professional front, Kangana's upcoming projects, she is set to portray the role of Indira Gandhi in the biopic titled 'Emergency.' Additionally, she will be seen as an Indian Air Force pilot in the film 'Tejas' and make her debut as a producer with the movie 'Tiku Weds Sheru,' featuring Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Avneet Kaur. Tamil movie enthusiasts will see her as the lead character in 'Chandramukhi 2,' a nautch girl role alongside Raghava Lawrence.