Adarsh Gaurav takes a stand against gender-based pay disparities, while encouraging creative freedom
If the BAFTA-nominated young Bollywood actor Adarsh Gaurav gets an opportunity to change anything about India, it is the persistence of pay disparities based on gender.
“If we wish to build a better society, we need to stop gender-based pay disparities,” Gaurav commented. “We’re constantly talking about gender equality and there are many areas that need to be worked on, including changing our mindset, but I would like to stress the issue of pay disparities. It exists even in the film industry.”
Gaurav started acting at a young age and has appeared in films such as My Name Is Khan, Mom and the short film Rukh alongside Manoj Bajpayee, but he was internationally acclaimed for his character, Balram Halwai, in the Oscar-nominated film, The White Tiger. It was this role that brought him a BAFTA nomination for Leading Actor.
Continuing on the subject of gender-based pay disparities, he said, “If I only talk about the principal actors of a film, whether male or female, both of them are working for an equal number of days and putting in an equal amount of work based on the demands of the characters they play.
Then why just because one is a man and the other is a woman, there should be a pay disparity? I know pay disparities exist everywhere but being an actor, I can only talk about our industry. Pay disparities based on gender exist and I think we should put an end to that.”
Gaurav also spoke up in favour of “the freedom of creative expression”. He added that, as an artist, he felt negatively about the industry’s practise of remaking films.
“I believe that making remakes take away the freedom of originality,” Gaurav claimed. “Creating anything original, be it a story, song or anything, takes time but it is worth investing our energy in it. To create an original story, we have to be very, very rooted, observant and well-aware of things happening around us,” he expressed.
“Creativity, as in inspiration, comes from reality, and when we make films based on reality, it creates an instant connection with the audience. It also reaches a global audience because the story is more authentic, and therefore better,” he concluded.