Jennifer Lawrence takes on gender wage gap in Hollywood, but what about Bollywood actresses?

Jennifer Lawrence is the highest paid actress in Hollywood , yet she had to face gender-based wage inequality as was revealed in the infamous Sony hack scandal. The Oscar-winning actress hadn’t spoken much about the issue, but now she has hit out against film industry sexism in a blunt essay for an online feminist newsletter. In her trademark honest-yet-hilarious style, the actress blasted the pay gap between the sexes in her post for Lenny, a newsletter co-founded by Lena Dunham, but admitted she had failed to tackle the issue out of fear of being labeled “difficult” or “spoiled.” [caption id=“attachment_2468210” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File photo of Jennifer Lawrence. AFP[/caption] She said that when she found out from Sony emails leaked last year that she was paid less than her male co-stars in the hit-movie American Hustle, she didn’t get mad at Sony but at herself. “I would be lying if I didn’t say there was an element of wanting to be liked that influenced my decision to close the deal without a real fight,” Lawrence said in her post. “At the time, that seemed like a fine idea, until I saw the payroll on the Internet and realized every man I was working with definitely didn’t worry about being ‘difficult’ or ‘spoiled.’ I’m over trying to find the ‘adorable’ way to state my opinion and still be likable! F**k that.I don’t think I’ve ever worked for a man in charge who spent time contemplating what angle he should use to have his voice heard. It’s just heard,” she wrote. She also said she found it offensive that one of the hacked Sony emails had referred to fellow movie star Angelina Jolie as a “spoiled brat.” “For some reason, I just can’t picture someone saying that about a man,” she wrote. Lawrence, who won an Oscar for her role in the 2012 comedy Silver Linings Playbook, is one of Hollywood’s youngest stars at  25. She’s also one of its highest earners, topping Forbes magazine’s 2015 list of best-paid actresses at $52 million dollars. But that’s still nearly $30 million short of the $80 million raked in by Robert Downey Jr, who topped the list for the third consecutive year. Closer home, the gender pay gap is just as disparate in Bollywood. According to the 2014 Forbes India Celebrity List, the only woman in the top 10 was Deepika Padukone at no 7 with earning of Rs 67.2 crore. Salman Khan tops the list with annual earnings of Rs 244.5 crore. The difference is apparent for all to see. While Indian actress have spoken about undertones of sexism in Bollywood, none have countered it as vociferously as Lawrence. Actresses like Kangana Ranaut, Priyanka Chopra, Vidya Balan and Katrina Kaif, Aditi Rao Hydari have all been vocal about it. A Hindustan Times report quotes Priyanka Chopra saying that the “remuneration difference is insane” while Kangana reportedly said, “At some point, we have to come to that place, where we are equally paid. It is a small step. We are headed in that direction.” However, Sonam Kapoor had supposedly justified the wage gap saying that it ‘makes mathematic sense’. “It’s mathematics really. There is something called a market price in our industry. It does not make economic sense for the producer to give me the same price as the lead actor of the same category. Say a Ranbir Kapoor film will open to Rs 10 crore on Friday, but my films will open significantly low. So it’s important for the producer to earn the money invested,” she was quoted as saying by NDTV. The fact remains that gender-based wage inequality will continue to exist, and in professions far less public and glamorous as acting. As Lawrence says, her problems are not altogether relatable, but celebrities talking about it is sure to give the cause prominence. With  inputs from agencies