Parineeti Chopra addresses pay parity in Bollywood, following Priyanka's career trajectory

Parineeti Chopra, who will be seen next alongside Sidharth Malhotra in their upcoming rom-com _ Jabariya Jodi , h_as been busy promoting her upcoming film. Ahead of the release, the actress has spoken about struggling with depression, cousin Priyanka Chopra Jonas’s career trajectory, brother-in-law Nick Jonas, and pay parity in Bollywood.

On battling depression

Parineeti admits to suffering from clinical depression for more than a year during 2014-15. She says that in the latter part of 2014, two of her films, Daawat-e-Ishq and Kill Dil, failed to work at the bo -office. Due to the films’ commercial failures, Parineeti also had to struggle financially. It is during this time that she started suffering from clinical depression.

“I went into a shell. I stopped eating, I stopped sleeping well. I did not have any friends at that time. I never used to meet people. The people I was in touch with, I cut off from everyone, including my family. I would talk to them once in two weeks. I was finished. I just used to be in my room, watching TV, sleeping, staring all day. I would cry maybe 10 times a day. I was always upset and crying. I had this chest pain that would not go out of my body. I have never felt actual clinical depression. It happened to me in that year,” she confesses in an interview with Film Companion.

On following Priyanka Chopra’s footsteps

Parineeti says she would eventually love to follow the footsteps of cousin Priyanka and explore Hollywood films, but she is currently getting interesting offers in India. The actress has quite a few other projects lined up after Jabariya Jodi, including the Hindi adaptation of the Hollywood film  The Girl On The Train , and the Saina Nehwal biopic .

On Nick Jonas

The actress also showers praises on her brother-in-law Nick Jonas. In an interview to Bombay Times, Parineeti remarks how despite him being “so young”, he is a very mature person.

“Nick is unbelievably family-oriented. He is so inclusive and wants his maternal, paternal family, in-laws and everybody to be around him always. He cares about everyone and is so positive as a person. He also makes me and my entire family better. Nick has taught me to enjoy the simpler things in life. He is so young, but at the same time so mature. He is a great husband to Priyanka and brother-in-law to me.”

On pay-parity in Bollywood

During a promotional gig of Jabariya Jodi, the actress confesses in an episode of Tapecast that while she has often felt that she deserved more remuneration than she is paid, the endorsements women get make up for the pay gap.

“I have actually seen cheques of heroes of the same film, getting paid four times the amount I was paid. That’s when I realised that there is a thing called ‘pay parity’. I always felt like I deserved a little bit more but I only got this much. But then we make it up with endorsements. Girls do a lot of endorsements so we kind of make it up. So that is why I never talk about it (pay parity) because the boys don’t do as many endorsements as girls. I hope I’m right. We do so many beauty commercials and hair commercials like so many brands and I think we kind of cover it up,” she was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.