Women are paid more than men in dramas: Amar Khan

Says female actors have more ways to earn

Actor Amar Khan said she gets confused when people say that women TV actors are paid less than men in Pakistan’s television industry.

“Women are paid more in dramas,” Amar told Something Haute Wednesday, wondering if a female actor has ever admitted it. “I don’t know why people don’t share this.”

Amar said that actors like Saba Qamar, Sajal Ali, Mahira Khan and even Yumna Zaidi are paid higher than their male co-stars.

“Ours is one of the industries where women get paid a handsome amount,” she said, adding that female stars also have a number of lucrative deals through commercials and social media promotions.

Gender pay parity has been a hot debate both in Hollywood and Bollywood, where leading female actors have taken the initiative and raised the issue at various platforms. American actor Patricia Arquette used the Oscars stage in 2015 to call for equal wage after winning the Best Supporting Actress award for her performance in Boyhood (2014). According to The Guardian, male stars in Hollywood earn $1.1 more per film.

Female stars in Bollywood have also spoken out against wage inequality. In 2019, Deepika Padukone confessed rejecting a film because she was not being paid the same amount. Anushka Sharma wrote a column for Economic Times, accusing the film industry of not treating female actors equally.