Is Bollywood hesitant to pay the big bucks to Deepika?

Last month, the highly coveted Forbes Celebrity Rich List did the rounds, and fans and detractors took a collective gasp when this year’s newest entry in the top 10 list included Deepika Padukone.

The Bollywood actress was officially declared as one of the highest-paid actors in the world, ranking 10th on Forbes’s list, and needless to say, all eyes were on the remuneration package that would follow for her next film project.

People didn’t have to wait long as Padukone had already bagged Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s next period drama, ‘Padmavati’.

Soon enough, the rumour mill was working overdrive with talk of Padukone snagging a salary of Rs110 million for the film, thus catapulting her as the highest paid actress in Bollywood as well.

Shortly after, real-life beau and fellow co-star Ranveer Singh’s starry salary was revealed and it was Rs30m shy of Padukone’s pretty package.

Sure enough, in a male-dominated industry where the discrepancy in salary between female and male co-stars has been a hotly debated topic, which has even seen
Bollywood’s top actresses not hesitate to comment, Padukone’s Rs110 could have definitely ruffled some feathers.

And as if on cue, Bhansali’s spokesperson denied all news regarding the remuneration packages relating to ‘Padmavati’ calling it ‘completely false’ and the ‘rumours’ ‘baseless and blown out of proportion’.

An industry source told Emirates 24|7, that irrespective of a female actor’s standing in the global arena, the box office registers in India only ring with resonance when it’s a male star that heads the star cast.

While some analysts may disagree, Padukone’s box office value should see a change with her Hollywood debut, ‘xXx: The Return of Xander Cage’ starring Vin Diesel.

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