We recently heard that Alia Bhatt has set her sights on Hollywood and that the talented actress would like to “experiment with Hollywood”. Priyanka Chopra is now a well established name in the United States; having starred in a major TV series, music videos and now also playing a baddie in a major film based on the TV series Baywatch. Deepika Padukone also signed up for the Hollywood project The Return of Xander Cage. But other than actors such as Irrfan Khan and earlier Naseeruddin Shah and a few others, we never hear about the men migrating westwards; certainly none of the top stars are ever heard of as heading to Hollywood. Why is this?
The men have it better here
The leading men in India are paid way more than the leading ladies. There is a glaring disparity between the fees that men and women command in the industry. Even though Deepika Padukone is thought to be among the best paid actresses of Bollywood, she makes a mere fraction of what top actors such as Salman Khan, Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Akshay Kumar and Amitabh Bachchan make. According to reports, if Salman is the highest paid at about Rs 60 crore per project, Deepika is paid a mere one fourth that or about Rs 15 crores. Women centric roles are few and far between; an overwhelming majority of movies belong to the leading men with the women’s roles being almost incidental.
The hero’s extended shelf life
The leading men in Bollywood can be 50 and still get away with playing men in their 30’s or even younger (if there is a flashback involved for instance). While for the women, the appearance of those first facial lines, being on the wrong side of 30 or a marriage certificate can all be reason for disqualification, the men have to suffer no such limitations. A man can continue to be the swashbuckling ‘hero’, the good guy who beats up the baddies for decades. The industry Khans are all 50 now, but does that stop them from doing young man roles and romancing women half their age or even less? In a word, no.
The adulation
While the leading women are quickly consigned to the mummy-aunty-older sister roles; toppled from their pinup girl pedestals the minute maturity sets in, the fan base of the men suffer not at all. Bollywood’s bad boy Salman Khan may be in the news for a variety of alleged wrong doings, but his fans continue to grow in number and in devotion. Bhai can do no wrong but woe betide the woman who dares to become a wife or mother and she will be told in no uncertain terms that her days as the reigning queen of audiences’ hearts is firmly behind her.
Think about it: comeback movies notwithstanding, Aishwarya Rai and Madhuri Dixit never did recover their spot in the sun after motherhood did they? So why really would our Khans and Kumars ever want to look westward when they have it so very good here? While women have to look westwards for greener pastures so to speak, the men can keep grazing at home.
Author – Reena Daruwalla
