Rakul Preet Singh says the ability to pull crowds to theater should decide pay, not gender

Rakul Preet Singh on Thursday said fee of actors should be decided on the basis of their ability to draw the audiences to the theatre and not gender.

Recently, actor Priyanka Chopra Jonas said Prime Video series "Citadel" was the first project in her 22-year career where she had pay parity with her male co-actor.

Referring to Priyanka's comments, Rakul said she had "a very different opinion" on the long-debated issue of equal pay for both male and female actors.

"When Priyanka Chopra said what she said... I feel she has become a global icon, she can pull crowds to theatres. What really needs to happen is that your pay needs to be decided on how much crowd you're pulling to theatres as opposed to your gender – that's more important.

"Because when we stop having these questions or conversations on pay parity based on men and women, then the scenario would change. Are you creating good content? Is the audience excited to see your film – whether you're a male actor, female actor, character actor, whoever? If you're attracting an audience, you should be paid based on some proportional math, but not on gender," the actor said during a panel discussion titled 'Women in Cinema' at FICCI Frames 2023 here.

Also part of the panel was filmmaker Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari, known for "Bareilly Ki Barfi" and "Nil Battey Sannata".

Ashwiny said "Bareilly Ki Barfi", fronted by Kriti Sanon, "changed the way" people looked at her. The 2017 romantic comedy also starred Ayushmann Khurrana and Rajkummar Rao.

“Bareilly Ki Barfi happened, and it was a full-out comedy, headlined by one woman and two men. It was a lot of fun because I realized that the actors believed in me a lot, that was the most important thing. I was very sure the actress would be with me because there's a connect, there's a gaze.

"But I really thank Ayushmann Khurrana and Rajkummar Rao for equally trusting in me that in the middle of Lucknow city, in the midst of a crowd of thousands, with my team, which had a lot of girls, and they were very supportive and said, 'You know what, she's the one helming.' I think we all need respect," the director added.