HT NxT: Sayani Gupta says ‘casting director said it is the norm to pay men more than women’

Actor Sayani Gupta has said that a casting director once told her that it was the norm for men to be paid more than women in the industry. Sayani was speaking at an HT NxT session on Thursday.

Asked about the pay disparity in the film industry, Sayani said, “I have been told that the male counterparts get more in the same shows that I am being part of. I do not know, and of course, none of us really go and discuss how much we are getting paid. Kirti Kulhari and I are in the same project, but we do not know how much individually we are making. I think that would be extremely unprofessional to discuss. That is like a bit of a no-go zone, we don’t really know.”

She added, “There is no balance sheet coming out that we can refer to, and check and say, ‘Oh, this one is getting this much. I am paid this much’. I have been told by one casting director that it is a norm, apparently, to pay men more than women. But, having said that, we do not know. We do not have access to that kind of information.”

On the HT NxT session, Sayani was joined by actors Kirti Kulhari, Rasika Dugal and Jaideep Ahlawat, all of whom were discussing how the entertainment industry has evolved in the digital age. 

Also read: Sayani Gupta fears getting cheated on in a marriage: ‘I won’t be able to forgive’

HT NxT is a first-of-its-kind platform that aims at bringing together the Next-Gen leaders & newsmakers to discuss pertinent issues and offer innovative solutions for a better tomorrow. The theme for 2021 is ‘Leading the change’.  

Sayani Gupta was most recently seen in Amazon Mini TV anthology, Kaali Peeli Tales.