The disparity in the remuneration of female actors versus the male actors in India has now attracted a reaction from Katrina Kaif. She says the industry is yet to see enough female-driven films, which can help them ask producers for a certain fee upfront.
The ‘Bang Bang!’ actress, who has worked with other A-listers such as Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Salman Khan and Akshay Kumar, shared that she has indeed faced the experience of being paid less. And she also understands that it’s since she has worked with the creme de la creme of the industry.
“An actor, male or female needs to be paid according to the budget, structure and the set up of the film,” she said.
“Paying a male actor who is going to give you a 90 percent guarantee of recovering the crores invested in a film, I can understand that as a producer, but what about the females?”
The 32-year-old added: “We have yet to see enough films that have guaranteed the producer that ‘x’ amount of money can be paid upfront to the actress.”
Katrina suggests it is best if an actress decides a fee and then have a contract with a clause that ‘if the film makes ‘x’ amount, then pay me ‘y’ amount’.
“I think these things should be clearly stated in the contract, so that both the actor/actress and the producer are safe.”
The actress has starred in films like ‘Ek Tha Tiger’ and ‘Jab Tak Hai Jaan’. Her latest release is ‘Phantom’, in which she shares screen space with Saif Ali Khan.
Directed by Kabir Khan, the film features Katrina doing a lot of action but it was not something new to her.
“To play such a role, to look agile and to look comfortable with a gun, to be able to do a decent amount of action and physical combat… you need to be a physically adept person,” she said.
“I think I was fortunate to have had already the experience during ‘Ek Tha Tiger’ and during ‘Dhoom 3’. So, I was very comfortable with the action sequences.”
During her career, Katrina has often ended up in characters, which justified her British accent – for example, ‘Namastey London’, ‘New York’ and ‘Singh Is Kinng’.
Talking about it, Katrina, who has been working hard on her Hindi dialogue delivery, said: “Although I have been offered many roles that have been based in India completely. There will be some roles, say for ‘Raajneeti’, where we were very conscious of it (the accent) and we tried to take it away 90 to 95 percent.”
Her next projects include “Jagga Jasoos” and “Fitoor”.
