Kareena Kapoor reacts to reports of her demanding ₹12 crore to play Sita for the first time, shakes her head

Kareena Kapoor for the first time reacted to the news that she'd hiked her fee to ₹12 crore to play Sita in a reimagining of the Ramayana, which was met with controversy.

Actor Kareena Kapoor made headlines when unconfirmed reports said that she'd hiked her fee for an upcoming reimagining of the Ramayana from Sita's perspective. The actor was said to have asked for ₹12 crore for the large-scale film, which would require a longer time commitment from her.

Kareena Kapoor will next be seen in Laal Singh Chaddha.

While Kareena hasn't spoken about the matter, the topic was brought up in a recent interview with NDTV, and she shook her head when it was asked. "What next for Kareena Kapoor Khan? You have a film with Aamir Khan later this year, there was talk that you were getting ₹12 crore, you were asking for ₹12 crore, and other actresses came out in support of you, but I think that was fake news..." the anchor said. Kareena's response was unintelligible, but she shook her head, and said, "Yeah, yeah..."

A certain section of the public on Twitter had said that Kareena had hurt the religious sentiments of a community by hiking her fees to play the role of Sita. The actor received support from several members of the industry, including Pooja Hegde, Priyamani, and Taapsee Pannu, who told Bollywood Hungama that it's a sign of ingrained sexism that only women are criticised for hiking their salaries, and were a man to do the same thing, it would be viewed as a sign of his success.

"You'll always read about this problem issue of hiked salary with women. But why not? She is one of the biggest female superstars we have in the country. If she commands a certain salary for her time, it's her job. Do you think any other mythological characters that are played by men, do you think they do it for free? I don't think so," she had said.

Bollywood Hungama had previously quoted a source as saying that Kareena Kapoor had hiked her remuneration from around ₹6-8 crore to ₹12 crore for the Sita film. The source also noted that the film would require between eight to 10 months of the actor's time. Incidentally, her husband Saif Ali Khan is playing Lankesh in another film inspired by the Ramayana, Adipurush.