There is a lot of discussion regarding pay parity in the Indian cinema and mostly it is about the difference in remunerations of lead actors and lead actresses but people rarely talk about the low payments being made to the supporting actors.
Senior actor Mushtaq Khan who has worked in many serials and movies talked about the low pay and mediocre treatment that actors like him get while working in movies.
During a podcast, Mushtaq Khan revealed that he was paid even less than what Akshay Kumar’s staff was paid. He said, “My payment might have been lesser than Akshay Kumar’s staff in the film. Unfortunately our films spend a lot of money on ‘stars’. We go everywhere on our own, we travel in economy and stay in the hotels provided by the makers. In Dubai, the hotel I was allotted was the same hotel in which Akshay’s staff was staying. This happens a lot in big films.”
However, he is happy with the fact that things are changing and now the makers are taking good care of supporting actors as he said, “But a lot of filmmakers want to end this disparity. I am doing a film titled Stree 2 and I get a lot of love and they take care of everyone. We have a lot of fun together. I recently did Railway Men and I had a lot of fun. The production guys gave a lot of respect. The new generation of production people and even actors are doing very well.”
This is really great if things are changing now, what do you say?
