Priyanka Chopra Receives Equal Pay For First Time In 22 Year Career

After actor and producer Priyanka Chopra was listed in BBC's 100 Most Influential Women, she revealed that she received equal pay to her male co-star for the first time in her 22-year career.

The BBC 100 Most Influential Women list celebrated the achievements of women internationally and is used to focus on women's experiences around the world.

For the first time, BBC asked some of the previous women on the 100 Women list to nominate women they feel deserve a place on the 2022 list. During the interview, Chopra revealed that she first received equal pay to her male co-star for the upcoming US television series Citadel.

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Priyanka Chopra On BBC List

Actor Priyanka Chopra was described as one of Bollywood's biggest film stars on BBC's 100 Most Influential Women list. She made her film debut in 2002 and made history when she became the first South Asian actor to lead an American network drama television series, Quantico in 2015.

Chopra spoke to BBC about equal pay and how she first received equal pay to her male co-star in her 22-year career for her upcoming US series, Citadel.

Chopra said, "I've never had pay parity in Bollywood. I would get paid about 10 percent of the salary of my male co-actor".

She added that the pay gap is still "substantially large" and that her generation of female actors has asked for equal pay. Chopra said, "We've asked, but we've not got it".

Chopra recounted her days as a younger actor in the Indian film industry and spoke about her experiences. She added that she believed it was okay to sit for hours on set while her male co-actor took his own time and show up on set whenever they wanted.

She also spoke about facing body shaming due to her complexion, which led to her thinking she "was not pretty enough".

Chopra added, "it is up to our generation to be able to cut those ties and change it so that the next generation doesn't inherit the equity placed on light skin".

The upcoming series Citadel is Chopra's first show with a male actor as a co-lead, and also marks the first time she received equal pay for her work.