At the recent Time 100 celebration in New York, where Deepika Padukone was the sole representative from Bollywood, the actress made an important point about how to negotiate pay for her work in an industry that has notorious double standards when it comes to male and female actors. She addressed the pay gap head on in her speech, saying, “You can feel a sense of ‘am I stepping over the line, do I deserve it?’ But if you believe you deserve it, then you do.”
Cheered on by her colleagues, Deepika doubled down on her stance, confirming that she demanded a certain fee for her lead role in the recent historical magnum opus Padmaavat, even if that meant she would be paid more than her male co-stars Shahid Kapoor and Ranveer Singh. At the time, the figure was estimated to be a neat Rs 12 crore.
She added, “For years, we’ve been made to feel we should be okay with settling for less, with sometimes a promise of getting something more later on. But I think you should get what you think you deserve. It’s okay to fight for it, and it’s okay to feel uncomfortable initially, because that’s just the way we’ve been made to feel for so long.”
If you’re in the middle of hectic negotiations for an appraisal at work, take the award-winning actress’s words to heart to make sure you get what you deserve.
