Veteran actor Zeenat Aman has been making Instagram a better place with her consistent, thoughtful, and authentic posts. The 71-year-old artiste made her debut on the photo-sharing platform earlier this month. On 25 February, Zeenat took to Instagram to talk about gender pay parity in the Indian film industry.
Sharing an old clip of herself from her film, the actor penned a long note to shed some light on the issue.
In her note, Zeenat wrote, "In the late 70s, Keith Adam from the Australian Broadcasting Commission popped by the set of Qurbani, where I was rehearsing for ‘Laila o Laila’, and snagged himself an interview.
"It’s been nearly 50 years since this footage was shot, and the industry has changed immensely since. The roles available to women are clearly not just ornamental anymore. What hasn’t changed though is the gender pay gap. In my time I was lauded as the 'highest paid female actor', but the disparity in the pay cheque between my male co-stars and myself was so vast it was laughable. The Zeenat you see in this clip was quite certain that half a century would be enough time to even the scales. So it disappoints me that even today women in the film industry don’t have wage parity," she added.
The actor concluded her post with, "Women have consistently put in the work, and I really think that the onus is now on our men - actors, directors, producers - to ensure that their female co-workers (not just stars) are paid fairly. It seems such a simple and obvious thing, and yet it would be revolutionary if any man actually did this."
Zeenat has delivered several blockbusters in her career. Some of the iconic films in which she has worked include Satyam Shivam Sundaram, Don, Yaadon Ki Baraat, Hare Rama Hare Krishna, Qurbani, Dostana, and Dharam Veer, among many others.
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