Kriti Sanon : Pay Disparity in Bollywood is 'Frustrating

Over the years, you have done some incredible work in films like Heropanti, Bareilly ki Barfi, and Luka Chuppi. How has the success of these films shaped your confidence as an actor?

In my opinion, success gives you confidence and that’s everything you need to better yourself. Your talent could be enough but if you don’t have confidence, it is never going to come out in the best way. With Bareilly Ki Barfi, I got the confidence to step out of the box into a world that I had never experienced before, and even the audience also had not seen me in that avatar.

When Bareilly Ki Barfi succeeded and my performance was appreciated, it gave me a lot of confidence to do something new and different and unleash this unstoppable version of myself. With the success of Lukka Chupi and Housefull 4, I felt empowered. I felt that the choices I’ve made might just be right because so many people are liking them. So that gave me a sense of safety and security.

You were once told 'you are too good-looking to be an actor'. Do you feel that you have finally broken that stereotype/notion for yourself?

Well, that has been slightly misquoted. I was sort of auditioning for a certain part and was told that I’m too pretty for it. Maybe they needed someone who was not good looking as per the definition in our society. I didn’t agree with that then and I don’t agree with that now. I personally feel that anybody can look like anyone with hair, makeup and costume. That came true with Bareilly Ki Barfi because everyone told Ashwiny (Iyer Tiwari) that I was not the right casting, since people still imagined me on a red-carpeted ramp, in a slightly more urban world. They thought that I wouldn’t fit in a small town just because of the way I look.

To be honest, I have had a look test where I was almost unrecognisable. So, people just need to see the talent that you have and if you have the capability to pull off a character. The look of the character is not an actor’s job so much, it is the brilliant people that we have around us that change the way we look with all the hair, makeup, and wardrobe we get. So yeah, I am glad that things are also changing and people are believing more in talent than anything else.

Do you still have to struggle to navigate your way through power imbalances in the industry? And, what keeps you going when someone else gets chosen over you just for having a famous surname or film connection?

To be very honest, I think power imbalances exist in every field and every industry. My mom is a professor and I have seen it happening in her college also. My dad used to work in an office and it happened there. Somewhere or the other it’s always there around us. What’s more important is for you to realise that you have a journey of your own, totally different from other peoples’. So yes, it does get frustrating sometimes when I feel that I deserve something more than a person who is probably getting it.

I genuinely believe that everything happens for a reason and everything happens for good. So, if some door is not opening for me, maybe the other one will, and maybe that’s the one that is actually better for me, but I’ve just not realised it yet. I’m a very positive person, having said that, I am also human who goes through bouts of frustration and helplessness when I feel that someone is being a bully, or using their power in the wrong way. It’s also frustrating to see the pay disparity in the industry. I use all of this energy and channelise it into my work. That keeps me sane, that keeps me at peace.

i really like her ❤️ Her upcoming movies are good, i hope makes it big⭐️

This is the reason she is getting her sister Nupur a bollywood debut for extra money.

Pay disparity is frustrating but what annoys me more is why are actors payed so much for so little work. A nurse a teacher a cleaner and most other jobs aren’t well payed but are so much harder.

It would be great if actors and other celebrities from the sport section or even instagram are payed less.

greed has no limit 🥳

Nobody likes a whiner 😆

Originally posted by: Witcher

Pay disparity is frustrating but what annoys me more is why are actors payed so much for so little work. A nurse a teacher a cleaner and most other jobs aren’t well payed but are so much harder.

It would be great if actors and other celebrities from the sport section or even instagram are payed less.

Actors, entertainers, athletes bring in profit and for the top entertainers it's a case of supply and demand. Team owners, businesses, producers, production companies would love to pay them less and keep more profit to themselves but that would mean missing out on the top talent who would go elsewhere.

It's not as if if they aren't paid then nurses or cleaners would be paid more. Movie studios and sports teams aren't going to send that money to nursers or cleaners (even the ones that work for their companies) - they'll just keep more profit.

Minimum wages would have to be drastically increased (they should be) - which would probably help cleaners more than nurses unless one installs an economic system where every job is rated and salary accorded which is not happening.

Originally posted by: Witcher

Pay disparity is frustrating but what annoys me more is why are actors payed so much for so little work. A nurse a teacher a cleaner and most other jobs aren’t well payed but are so much harder.

It would be great if actors and other celebrities from the sport section or even instagram are payed less.

It's all because the industry they are in makes that kind of revenue. They sell themselves as a brand.