Women have to prove themselves every time: Madhuri Dixit and Guneet Monga on pay parity

Bollywood star Madhuri Dixit believes pay parity in Hindi cinema is still a distant dream as women have to repeatedly prove themselves and demonstrate their ability to draw audiences to theatres.

Dixit, who has appeared in films including Tezaab, Hum Aapke Hain Koun..!, Dil To Pagal Hai, Khalnayak and Devdas, participated in a session titled 'The Journey of Women in Cinema', kickstarting the 2025 IIFA Weekend, on Friday, March 7. She was joined by Oscar-winning producer Guneet Monga.

"For the women, they have to prove themselves time and again and to say that we are equal and we can draw an audience, but you have to prove it every single time. And yes, there is still a disparity," said Dixit, who most recently featured in Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3.

"It's like pushing the envelope every time, a little bit more, it's like baby steps. We are still a long way away from disparity not happening... We have to kind of work every day towards it," she added.

Monga said people need to take more chances on women artists. "There is clearly a pay gap, there is clearly a difference and women have to do it 10 times to be doing it once... It's very hard, but I just feel like I genuinely want male actors to answer this question."

"I feel like the onus of answering these questions on women is very strange, because we're the people who are at the receiving (end)," she added.

Giving the example of Stree 2, which she said is the highest-earning Hindi film, Monga said more opportunities should be created for women. "There are full possibilities of creating those moments again. One needs to take more chances and to be able to do that. And there is no shortcut to doing more," she said.

Dixit said every film she did in her career had very strong female characters.

The actor said Mrityudand was one of the films she particularly enjoyed because it featured her in a strong role. "I was very fortunate to get characters that were very strong, strong women—whether it was Beta, Dil, Raja, Dil To Pagal Hai, or Mrityudand. I mean, if there was one film that I really enjoyed making, it was Mrityudand," she said, adding that the movie pushed the envelope for her as a woman.

Dixit said people used to consider her to be the "baby of commercial films" and that's why they advised her against doing the film.

"Mrityudand was considered to be an ‘art film.’ And the two were like separate things—you couldn’t merge them. And I said, ‘No, I want to do it because it’s a great role.' It’s about women’s empowerment, it’s about a woman standing up and speaking for herself," she said.

Dixit also said that, earlier in her career, the only women on set were the actors and hairdressers.

She said there were very few women directors and Sai Paranjpye was the only one she knew at the time.

"Now, when I came back (from the US) and walked onto the sets, there were women in every department—ADs, DOPs, writers, and more directors than before. Women are everywhere, which I think is very heartening to see, and it’s a big change," she added.

Monga said there is still a lot to be done as statistics point towards disturbing facts about women in cinema.

"Less than 3% of women in cinema are directors. Less than 9% are in the crew. There is a disturbing stat I want to share is that everybody tries to make low budget films with female DoPs.

"The minute the next film happens, the same crew moves on to make films with (established names). That information really disturbed me. I think we are born in patriarchy and we are learning feminism every day," she added.