Swara Bhaskar: Female actors have to fight for what they want

Actor Swara Bhaskar feels that not just money, female actors in Bollywood also need to get roles that are at par with male actors.

Whether it is nepotism, feminism or sexism, actor Swara Bhaskar has never held back from expressing her views on sensitive subjects. While most actors in Bollywood are acquainted with the prevalence of pay disparity in Bollywood, very few actually muster the courage to come out and talk about it. Swara, however, has been quite vocal in this regard.

Actor Swara Bhaskar will next be seen in Veerey Di Wedding, which also stars Kareena Kapoor Khan and Sonam Kapoor.

Rooting for “equal pay for equal work”, Swara says, “I am not saying that if I, being a female actor, work for 10 days, I should expect the pay that an actor gets for 100 days of work. But definitely, if I am working for 100 days, then I am expected to get an equal amount of pay as my male counterpart.”

Although Swara agrees that things are slowly changing, she adds that there will be more progress only when female actors start being a little more assertive.

“One thing is for sure that nobody is going to put that on a plate for you. [Female actors] really have to fight for what we want. If you see in Hollywood, women are taking up this whole question of equality and I think that’s fantastic, so why can’t Bollywood take its cue from them?” says the actor, stating that no movement gains momentum unless people fight for it.

“Nobody gave black people civil rights in the ‘50s on a platter; they suffered for a very long time. The same thing goes for the dalits too, so it holds true for women in films too,” says Swara.

On the work front, Swara will next be seen in Veerey Di Wedding, also starring Sonam Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor Khan.

Follow @htshowbiz for more