Vikrant Massey says his ‘body of work’ does not get him paid like Deepika Padukone: ‘Never made a fuss about it’

Vikrant Massey is breaking his silence on pay disparity in the film industry. The actor spoke about the fact that most of his female co-stars are paid more than him in Bollywood. Giving the example of Deepika Padukone, he also said that he is not paid as much as her even after working in the industry for so many years. (Also read: Gaslight Twitter review: Sara Ali Khan called ‘irritating’, film termed ‘boring and slow, not engaging at all’)

Vikrant has worked with Deepika Padukone in Meghna Gulzar’s Chhapaak. The actor recently opened up about the box office failure of the film and said that he is still proud of the film even though it didn’t do well at the box office. He said that there were political reasons that impacted Chhapaak’s performance at the box office.

Now, while promoting Crimes Aaj Kal on Etimes, Vikrant opened up about the pay disparity in Bollywood and said, “Bahar ke jo so-called ‘A-listers’ he woh bhi platforms pe films kar rahe he. Humare ‘so-called A-listers’ he yaha ke, superstars he, pichle 15-20 saalon se TV pe kaam kar rahe he. (The ‘so-called A-listers’ from outside are releasing their films on streaming platforms, while some of our very own ‘so-called A-listers’ have been working in TV for the last 15-20 years) Most of my female co-stars have been paid more than me, I have never made a fuss about it. My big body of work does not give me as much money as you know, Deepika Padukone, of course.”

Further talking about his choice of films and shows, Vikrant added, “I am comfortable in doing things I feel about, or strongly about in social media… There have been days when I have taken a few comments about me, my family, my wife… to heart and I haven’t been able to sleep that day.”

Vikrant was last seen in Gaslight which released on Disney+ Hotstar recently. It also starred Sara Ali Khan and Chitrangada Singh. The Hindustan Times review said, “If you want to spend two hours of your day solving a murder mystery and take a pat on your back for getting it right in the first go, try watching Gaslight. If you like Sara and Vikrant as actors, you might end up feeling bad for them because this definitely isn’t one of their best performances or at least the narrative doesn’t let them shine.”