Deepika will earn Rs 12 crore for Padmavati: New era for Bollywood actresses begins

The recent news of Deepika Padukone being offered a Rs 12 crore pay cheque for Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s new film Padmavati is the first concrete sign that suggests a turning of the tide for the actress in Hindi cinema. It’s not the amount that is worth rejoicing, for the male lead in the film, Ranveer Singh, would probably get paid more, as might Shahid Kapoor, rumoured to have been finalised for the second lead.

Neither is the fact that Padukone is the first actress to officially transcend the Rs 10 crore barrier reason enough for celebration as this amount is a pittance when compared what the top male stars such as Salman Khan, Aamir Khan, Akshay Kumar, or Hrithik Roshan take home.

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What makes the news special is perhaps for the first time a heroine has been "pursued" to be a part of a production and this would somewhere, hopefully, change the way actresses are associated with a project.

Inequality

There is no denying that actresses across the world fight a double-edged sword. Good roles start drying up as soon as they hit their mid-30s while the men only begin to come into their own and hit the best phase of their careers at the same age. Moreover, actresses are also automatically assumed to take a salary cut when it comes to roles with leading filmmakers.

Ideally speaking, any actor male or female wouldn’t mind letting go of money in order to get a role of a lifetime but this is often used as a ploy to convince actresses to work for less. The moment an A-list male star agrees to be associated with any project — be it the story of a couple travelling in a car or a man being left back on Mars — the project tweaks itself to meet the parameters of the star.

Comparatively, a low-budget film remains a low-budget film even if the biggest female star signs on the dotted line. Take for instance the case of Mrityudand (1997) where even a Madhuri Dixit couldn’t free the film with the experimental or art-house tag that was attached, but the moment a Salman Khan said yes to Dabangg (2010) it went from being just another project that could have featured Randeep Hooda, who was supposedly offered the role, to one of the biggest productions of the day.

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A Madhuri Dixit or a Salman Khan being a part of a Mrityudand or a Dabangg respectively changes nothing about the production aspect in terms of the number of shooting days or equipment or such beyond a certain degree but the whole aura becomes different when a top male star attaches himself to a film.

Another example would be the teaming of Mani Ratnam and Rajinikanth for Thalapathi (1991) where one can’t imagine the latter even entertaining the idea of lowering his market price for a chance to work with the former, but an Aishwarya Rai wouldn’t think twice before letting go of a couple of crores to be a part of a Mani Ratnam or a Yash Chopra film.

Disparity

The whole concept of remuneration is fluid in mainstream Hindi cinema. Things operate on logic devoid of any reasoning where a Kangana Ranaut would be fervently pursued with a Rs 10 crore-plus salary and a promise to be treated "equally" in terms of billing and prominence while her co-star would be offered a Rs 60 crore package for the same film.

Gender disparity in the manner Hindi cinema functions is a reality that stares everyone in the face and sometimes it’s the male actors who tom-tom about equality but end up creating an environment that fuels this inequality.

It is said that when Shah Rukh Khan was producing Chalte Chalte (2003) his "friend" Salman Khan showed up on the sets and disrupted the shooting thanks to an alleged lovers tiff with supposed girlfriend Aishwarya Rai, who was the female lead in the film. Rather than telling his pal to behave, Shah Rukh simply replaced Rai for he didn’t want the production to suffer monetarily.

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In the end, like most businesses the market drives the film trade as well. If the so-called women-centric films right from a Tanu Weds Manu (2011) to a Queen (2013) are raking in big money, or a Kahaani (2012), Mary Kom (2014) and Piku (2015) not only get made for a fraction of what a typical Khan project costs but also earn a profit besides garnering critical acclaim, it’s only a matter of time before the trade understands their commercial value.

While that happens, a major change of sorts can be seen in the combination of women getting roles beyond the traditional definition of leading ladies along with a bump in the salaries.

Milestone

There are rumours of Ranveer Singh being replaced by Hrithik Roshan or even Shah Rukh Khan as the lead in Padmavati doing the rounds, and chatter about everyone from Shahid Kapoor to Fawad Khan to Vicky Kaushal playing the second lead, but regardless of who plays Alaud-din Khilji or Raja Rawal Ratan Singh respectively, Bhansali’s more than clear on his Rani Padmini.

This is more than a hint at how filmmakers need heroines to not only add gravitas to a project but also get the audiences in.

Bhansali could have convinced Deepika with a nominal pay hike and perhaps she would have agreed as well keeping in mind the great working relation the two share following Goliyon Ki Raasleela: Ram-Leela (2013) and Bajirao Mastani (2015).

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Bhansali could have also gotten anyone else to play the role of Rani Padmini for his epic, but his decision to cast Padukone with a reported Rs 5 crore bump from the last time shows just how integral she is to the production.

In other words, this is nothing less than a milestone that could enable leading actresses to command similar importance as their male counterparts in terms of production.

(Courtesy of Mail Today.)