Priyanka Chopra reveals she was called ‘black cat & dusky’; received equal pay just once in career.

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Image Source : INSTAGRAM/PRIYANKA CHOPRAPriyanka Chopra

Global star Priyanka Chopra has had people comment on her skin complexion and call her dusky. The actress recently spoke about the pay disparity and body-shaming in Bollywood. Priyanka, who made her debut with the Tamil film Thamizhan in 2002, bagged Bollywood big projects such as Hero The Story of A Spy, Andaaz and more, during the 2000s. Not just in Hindi cinema, Priyanka Chopra has represented India at various global platforms and has carved a niche for herself in Hollywood too. The actress was one of the four Indians on the BBC’s ‘100 Women’ list of influential figures this year, during which she shared that her generation of female actors definitely asked for an equal pay but they never got it.

Priyanka was called ‘Dusky’

Speaking with BBC, Priyanka talked about colourism in Bollywood and said, “I was called ‘black cat’, ‘dusky’. I mean, what does ‘dusky’ even mean in a country where we are literally all brown? I thought I was not pretty enough, I believed that I would have to work a lot harder, even though I thought I was probably a little bit more talented than my fellow actors who were lighter skinned. But I thought that was right because it was so normalised.”

“Of course, that comes from our colonial past, it’s not even been 100 years since we shed the British Raj, so we still hold on to it, I think. But it is up to our generation to be able to cut those ties and change it so that the next generation doesn’t inherit the equity placed on light skin,” she added.

Priyanka Chopra on Pay Parity

Talking about her income, Priyanka Chopra said that she is finally earning as much as her male co-stars after spending 22 years in the film industry. The actress revealed that her upcoming web series ‘Citadel’ is the first time she’s ever received equal pay as her male co-stars.

She said, “I’ve never had pay parity in Bollywood. I would get paid about 10 per cent of the salary of my male co-actor.” She informed that many female actors of her generation have asked for pay parity but to no avail. Adding further, she said that the gap is not meager. “It (the pay gap) is large, substantially large. And so many women still deal with that. I’m sure I will too if I worked with a male co-actor now in Bollywood.

Meanwhile, Amazon Prime Video’s upcoming series ‘Citadel’ hails from ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ directors Joe and Anthony Russo and features an ensemble cast that is headlined by Priyanka and Richard Madden. It is billed as an “action-packed spy series” that spans the globe, and it’s being designed to launch spinoff series set in India, Spain Mexico and more.