Raveena Tandon is shooting an OTT series in London and Scotland right now. She’s noticing things. Private chartered planes for the male stars.
Smaller paychecks for the women. The actress, whose latest film Welcome To The Jungle just dropped, told an interviewer the gap is still there — even as the Hindi film industry talks a better game about equality.
“Heroes get private chartered planes while we don’t even make as much money,” she said. It’s a blunt observation from someone who has been in the business since the 1990s. Tandon starred in madcap comedies like Andaz Apna Apna and Bade Miyan Chote Miyan.
She knows how the machinery works. She said the writing is more defined today.
Heroines have more agency on screen. But the really funny lines still go to the heroes. And the money follows the lines.
The actress pointed out a telling contrast. A male assistant director and a female assistant director doing the same job get the same pay. The industry is fair at that level.
But step up to the lead roles, and the old math reasserts itself. Heroines get less than heroes.
Period. Tandon said she is proud of the progress women have made in the Hindi film industry. “I’m very proud of our Hindi film industry where today, I see women making inroads into every field of expertise, even what were once male-dominated bastions,” she said.
She meant it. But the trend underneath is stubborn.
The financial ceiling for women on screen stays lower. Welcome To The Jungle is a hero-driven mainstream comedy with an ensemble cast of 32 actors. Tandon called it a crazy ride and a refreshing change after a spate of intense performances in recent films and web series. She had to do a lot of unlearning.
The style of filmmaking has changed since the 90s. She credited her co-stars — Suniel Shetty, Akshay Kumar, Arshad Warsi, Paresh Rawal, Johny Lever, Rajpal Yadav, Jacqueline Fernandez and Disha Patani — for making it easy. Director Ahmed Khan also got a nod.
But the film’s structure is still built around male stars. That is the pattern.
And the pattern dictates the pay. For audiences in India, this is not an abstract debate. Bollywood is a local industry with global reach.
Its pay scales set expectations. When a heroine makes less than a hero in the same film, that message travels.
It tells young women entering the field that there is a ceiling. It tells young men that the top rung is theirs by default. Tandon’s comments land at a moment when women are making inroads into every field of expertise in the industry.
She said that herself. But the inroads have not reached the paycheck. The shift is subtle.
It is stubborn. And it is still there.
