You may be a popular face in Bollywood and draw fat pay cheques on home turf, but that doesn’t translate to much — moolah wise — on foreign shores. Indian actors often opt for Hollywood roles knowing fully well that it means a heavy pay cut. Why then do they do it
Hollywood — it’s the stuff that our desi stars dream about when they’ve achieved their ‘Big Bollywood Dream’. But although the recent years have brought this dream much closer to reality for our homegrown stars, it doesn’t seem to be reflecting on their bank accounts. While Hollywood has always been synonymous with success, fame and money, actor Irrfan Khan raised a lot of eyebrows recently when he said in an interview that in Hollywood, he makes ‘not even one fourth of what he makes in Bollywood’. This, coming from the actor who has become a poster boy of sorts for Indian stars looking for their Hollywood calling has raised questions about whether there is a pay disparity in Hollywood when it comes to importing Bollywood stars.
The 49-year-old actor, who made little less than $2 million during the course of 2015 further revealed that it was only when you play the lead that you get big bucks. However, considering that Irrfan, even back home is known more for his character roles than as a lead, the question that's being raised is whether Indian stars are willing to work for less to get a Hollywood opportunity.
While they may not be household names yet in the west, actors like Irrfan Khan, Priyanka Chopra and Anil Kapoor have surely made a mark in the international entertainment scene to deserve a fat paycheck. However, it is not the money that captures the fancy of Indian actors looking to the west, says Nimrat Kaur, who wowed the western audience with her role in TV spy thriller Homeland. “If you ask me I would say that I am 100 per cent happy with the payscale in the west and in India. May be others have a different take but if it is about whether I would take up a good opportunity even for a lesser pay, then I would do that even in India. If the script or the story talks to you then principally I wouldn’t leave it for money. There are roles that are great but you don’t get paid much and then there are roles that you can be embarrassed about but are paid great. Like I was paid the least from all the work I have done for Lunchbox but imagine giving on a project like Lunchbox for money,” says Nimrat.
The fact that casting in Hollywood is driven by typecasts and stereotypes are common knowledge, says prominent trade analyst Omar Qureshi. But the real cause of there being a pay disparity, he feels, is that Indian actors often don’t mind being typecast. “If you see the roles that Indian actors have traditionally done in Hollywood, it is often similar to Kabir Bedi playing a secondary villain to Bond. But before Priyanka or Irrfan became a sensation, actors were in fact ready to do such roles. Shah Rukh had the perfect response to this when I asked him ‘If he would ever do a Bond film'. He turned to me and he said, ‘Only if I am playing Bond and not some hooch who is getting shot at’.”
On his part, veteran actor Gulshan Grover, who was one of the first few actors to enter Hollywood feels that pay is a matter that is not subjective to race, colour, nationality or even age, but to your ‘added value’. “The only thing that matters is how much are they bringing in for the film at the box office,” says Gulshan. He further elaborates, “At this stage, I don’t think me, Irrfan or even Priyanka commands a following that can actually translate into big box office numbers in Hollywood. I think the only actors capable of doing that are a Shah Rukh or a Salman. So I don’t think it is a disparity. Look at Jackie Chan for instance. He is a Chinese actor but he brought in box office numbers from markets that were new to Hollywood. So he would be paid in certain millions, which other Chinese actors won’t command. So the only time Indian actors will get a pay check equal to a Tom Cruise is when SRK or Salman do a big Hollywood film.”
While there are many veterans in Bollywood who are yet to try their hand in the international industry for lack of opportunities that pay well, several newbies in Bollywood, who crossover early in their career are having a great time. 22-year-old Amyra Dastur, who was last seen with Emraan Hashmi in Mr.X, is on cloud nine after landing a role against Jackie Chan in the upcoming international venture, Kung Fu Yoga. “This is the highest paycheck I have ever got!” she says, adding that for the way she’s been treated she’d even work for free. “I really don’t know how it works, but I genuinely feel that the pay depends on the part and you get what you deserve. Unless you are a Tom Cruise, who can demand a certain pay irrespective of the role, I think that the pay is directly proportional to how important or meaty your role actually is.”
Lesser salary is not often seen as a problem as a Hollywood outing can boost any actor’s brand image. The real problem that Indian imports into Hollywood face, adds Nimrat is not the paycheck but how much of it they will get to take home. Offering her take on what Irrfan had to say, she says, “I don’t really know who gets paid what, but Irrfan is in a very different position in his career and this is only my fourth job. Irrfan has done so many projects and he is very well informed and astute about things so I am sure what he said must be after a lot of experience. But I would say that a huge part of the compensation here goes in commission and taxation. Like almost 40% what one gets paid goes away and that is one thing you have to consider while taking up a Hollywood project.”
Inputs by Asira Tarannum
