Sonam Kapoor Ahuja calls Bollywood pay gap ‘ridiculous’, says she has lost roles

Bollywood actress Sonam Kapoor Ahuja is known for being the daughter of veteran star Anil Kapoor and has in the past addressed being privileged because of her family background. In a tell-all interview with Vogue India, Kapoor Ahuja has opened up about being privileged enough to lose movie roles due to not being paid as much as her male counterparts.

“The pay gap is ridiculous. It’s not changed at all,” she said. “I can stand up to it, but then I don’t get those roles, and I’m OK with that. And frankly, I can afford to do that.”

Kapoor Ahuja, 36, made her movie debut in the 2007 romance ‘Saawariya’ and has gone on to star in films such as ‘Khoobsurat’, ‘Neerja’ and ‘Veere Di Wedding’.

“I realised over the past two or three years that I have no right to judge anybody. I’m very privileged, so making difficult choices isn’t really [expletive] difficult. I’d better be making those choices,” she added.

The actress also spoke about the strenuous filming process for her upcoming movie ‘Blind’, a remake of a Korean crime thriller about a former police officer who is visually challenged.

“We were shooting until 4am and starting at 3pm. You’d wake up and have one hour of daylight,” she said about shooting in Scotland.

Kapoor Ahuja is currently located in Notting Hill, UK, where she stays with her husband Anand Ahuja and lives what seems to be a regular life — I “make my own food, clean my own space, shop for my own groceries”. However, India is where home is for her.

“London has made me realise that I’m very Indian,” she said. “I didn’t understand why Indians abroad were more Indian than Indians in India, and I realised it’s because we hold on to our roots so hard. I miss Bombay — the food, my family, my friends, the traffic, the movie industry.”