Citadel: Priyanka Chopra reveals getting paid the same as co-star Richard Madden

Priyanka Chopra Jonas has appeared in more than 60 Indian films, and she entered Hollywood almost ten years ago. Today, she is one of the few Indian actors to have achieved success in the US entertainment market.

Priyanka told the BBC during a recent interview that she had never seen pay equality in Bollywood. According to the actor, she would be paid 10% of the income of her male co-star. The pay disparity is significant, really significant, and many women continue to face it. If she worked with a male co-actor in Bollywood today, she's sure she would too. Priyanka also said that the actresses of her generation have definitely asked for equal pay. Although they asked, they were unsuccessful.

After being named one of the BBC's 100 most influential women for 2022, Priyanka talked about how, as a young actor working in the Indian film industry, she came to see systemic misogyny as "normal."

She said that her male co-actor basically took his own time and decided whenever he wanted to show up on set was when they would film. She believed it was completely OK to sit for hours and hours on set.

Priyanka remembers experiencing body shaming when she first entered Bollywood due to her skin tone. She was referred to as a "black cat" and "dusky." In a nation where people are essentially all brown, Priyanka asked, "What even does the term "dusky" mean?"

Even though the Agneepath actor thought she was probably a little bit more gifted than her fellow actors, who were lighter skinned, she thought she wasn't pretty enough and that she would have to work much more. However, Priyanka believed that to be true because it was so normalised.

The actor went on to say that it comes from India's history as colonies; it hasn't even been a century since the country got rid of the British Raj, so she believes they still hang onto that. But it's up to the current generation to break those ties and make changes so that the fairness shown to people with lighter skin doesn't get passed on to the next generation.

When asked how different Hollywood is with salary equity, Priyanka revealed that it's the first time it's happened to her, but it has happened in Hollywood. So moving forward, she's unsure. When she said that, she was referring to her upcoming role in the thrilling spy series Citadel because it was her first show with a male actor as a co-lead.