Deepika Padukone in a still from Bajirao Mastani.
New Delhi:
That glass ceiling that Deepika Padukone was reported to have shattered recently might still be intact. A spokesperson for the actress' Padmavati director Sanjay Leela Bhansali said on Tuesday that reports about how much the film's actors are being paid are 'false.'
Deepika's Padmavati pay cheque was reported to have been over Rs 12 crores. This is apparently inaccurate. "The reports surrounding the star cast remuneration for Padmavati are completely false. The rumours are baseless and are being blown out of proportion," said Mr Bhansai's rep in a statement, according to news agency IANS.
The statement carefully names no names - but Deepika's salary is the only figure that has been discussed in the press.
Earlier this month, a report in Mumbai Mirror quoted a source as saying: "For Ram-Leela she got Rs 1 crore, for Bajirao Mastani, which came two years later, it was Rs 7 crore, this time it is Rs 12.62 crore, making her the first Bollywood actress to break the Rs 10 crore barrier."
What director Bhansali's rep didn't make clear is by how much the sums have been exaggerated. So has Deepika still breached the 10 crore mark and is she still the highest-paid actress? We don't know, but just days ago she was named the world's tenth highest paid actress by Forbes - on a list topped by Jennifer Lawrence.
Despite this, she's still paid far more poorly than her male colleagues. A #10 rank on the list of top actresses still puts her way behind the Indian men who made it to the list of top actors - Shah Rukh Khan, Akshay Kumar, Salman Khan and Amitabh Bachchan. Two of these - SRK and Big B - are her colleagues from films where actor and actress were given equal screen time.
If the Padmavati fee being rubbished is depressing, this graphic showing how Deepika's earnings compares to the men is even more depressing.
Still, it's not all gloom and doom. Deepika Padukone, 30, makes her Bollywood debut opposite Vin Diesel, no less, in next year's xXx: The Return of Xander Cage. And there's Padmavati going on floors soon, reuniting her with the team of Ram-Leela and Bajirao Mastani.
Deepika's Padmavati pay cheque was reported to have been over Rs 12 crores. This is apparently inaccurate. "The reports surrounding the star cast remuneration for Padmavati are completely false. The rumours are baseless and are being blown out of proportion," said Mr Bhansai's rep in a statement, according to news agency IANS.
The statement carefully names no names - but Deepika's salary is the only figure that has been discussed in the press.
Earlier this month, a report in Mumbai Mirror quoted a source as saying: "For Ram-Leela she got Rs 1 crore, for Bajirao Mastani, which came two years later, it was Rs 7 crore, this time it is Rs 12.62 crore, making her the first Bollywood actress to break the Rs 10 crore barrier."
What director Bhansali's rep didn't make clear is by how much the sums have been exaggerated. So has Deepika still breached the 10 crore mark and is she still the highest-paid actress? We don't know, but just days ago she was named the world's tenth highest paid actress by Forbes - on a list topped by Jennifer Lawrence.
Despite this, she's still paid far more poorly than her male colleagues. A #10 rank on the list of top actresses still puts her way behind the Indian men who made it to the list of top actors - Shah Rukh Khan, Akshay Kumar, Salman Khan and Amitabh Bachchan. Two of these - SRK and Big B - are her colleagues from films where actor and actress were given equal screen time.
If the Padmavati fee being rubbished is depressing, this graphic showing how Deepika's earnings compares to the men is even more depressing.
Still, it's not all gloom and doom. Deepika Padukone, 30, makes her Bollywood debut opposite Vin Diesel, no less, in next year's xXx: The Return of Xander Cage. And there's Padmavati going on floors soon, reuniting her with the team of Ram-Leela and Bajirao Mastani.
