“My blood would boil.”
Vidya Balan opens up about the pay gap in the industry.
Footage: BollywoodHungama.com
Vidya Balan opens up about the pay gap in the industry.
Footage: BollywoodHungama.com
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Short filmTranscript
00:00I was giving the film more number of days and yet, the actor was getting paid more.
00:08Chha toh, ab toh, you know, aapki shaadi ho gayi hai.
00:12When are you impregnating your wife?
00:21You said in an interview that, khoon kholta tha mera at male actors getting paid more
00:26even when she had the bigger role or endlessly waiting for them on the set.
00:30So, I said to myself, why should I cover down, why should I accept the second position.
00:34That's very nice. Khoon kholta tha mera, when I read khoon kholta tha mera,
00:38I can actually visualize how you must have said.
00:41No, really khoon kholta tha mera. Because there was one particular instance
00:48where I had the bigger role, I was giving the film more number of days
00:53and yet, the actor was getting paid more.
00:58And I am not asking you to put my name before the male actor just for the sake of it.
01:07I am not asking you to pay me more if I don't have that bigger role.
01:12But pay me what's due to me, firstly.
01:15So, you are telling me that you are negotiating and all that
01:18and then I get to know that you are paying the actor twice the amount for half the amount of work.
01:23I was like, you know, what the hell.
01:25There is another interesting statement that you made that she talks about being driven by anger.
01:29She admits to feeling anger even when people call her Mrs. Siddharth Roy Kapoor
01:32or how they sometimes invite him and say let Vidya know.
01:35She questions why she is asked again and again when she is going to have a child.
01:38Meanwhile, married male actors are never asked when are you impregnating your wife.
01:45When are you impregnating your wife?
01:47Male actors are never asked when are you impregnating your wife.
01:54So, why are you asking me?
01:56And what is the meaning of that question really?
01:58And you won't believe what happened to me last week.
02:01I was promoting and I think I was in Delhi.
02:03And I have said all this to the interviewer and then she says,
02:06yes, but do you intend to have two or three children?
02:09And I was like, what is the use of saying anything?
02:14You know, it's funny that many times women are the ones who ask this question actually in the first place.
02:18But it is, but I guess they don't know any better.
02:23I don't know why it becomes mandatory to ask a girl when you are getting married
02:29if you are seeing someone and secondly when you are having a child once you are married.
02:34Right, yeah, that is something.
02:36Even if you have a cold, it's like a sign of pregnancy if you are married.
02:43And you know, what I said was about being, you know, people send messages to Siddharth saying
02:54invite you and Vidya. Please, can you convey to her, you have my number.
02:59We work together or we know each other from before Siddharth and I got together.
03:05Why would you do that? Tell me. It's crazy. I don't understand these things.
03:10Or when they write Mr. and Mrs. Siddharth, I love my husband. That's why I am with him.
03:15But that doesn't mean that I am okay to be ignored in a Mrs.
03:20Yeah, that's true. That is true. And you have never changed the surname.
03:23No, no, not at all.
03:25Would you like to say something about this? My anger has meant pain to me but also meant survival.
03:28No, but I think I have been angry about a whole lot of things throughout life.
03:34I think especially growing up as a fat girl, I think you carry a certain amount of anger with you
03:40because when I was growing up at home, I thought I was the most beautiful girl on planet earth.
03:45When you step out and then you begin to feel that you are being judged and all that,
03:49you begin to look at yourself differently. You know, right from that to all the criticism one goes through
03:57or judgements one goes through, one goes through as an actor, as a female actor.
04:03I don't think it's easy. And I do sense a certain amount of unfairness which I have rationalized to myself over time.
04:12When I am talking about unfairness, it's all this, you know, about the wage disparity.
04:19There are little, little things. I am sensitive. So, things bother me.
04:23But I think that has also helped me survive. That's really given me, I have always told myself that
04:32come on, you can prove that you are bigger than this. You can prove that you are better than this.
04:38And to myself, whenever I am trying to prove anything, it's only to myself.
04:43So, I think that's why I say that it's helped me survive and if I have to replace it with something,
04:50it has to be something that leads to more clarity.