‘I can't compete with Salman Khan’

Entertainment Desk: Shah Rukh Khan recently confessed that his films can't beat Salman Khan's films at the box office.

Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan's love-hate-love relationship has been in the news for a long time. And after years of stoic silence, the two have yet again become best of buddies.

From promoting each other's films to attending the parties together to praising each other on social media, the two Khans have done everything possible to display their affection for each other. So much so that Shah Rukh postponed the release date of Raees which was earlier supposed to clash with Salman Khan's Sultan.

SRK, in an interview to Femina, confessed that his films can't mint as much money as a Salman film if the two clash at the box office. He was quoted as telling the magazine, "I can't compete with Salman Khan at the box office; none of us can. That is the reality."

When asked about the pay disparity between male and female actors in Bollywood, the 51-year-old actor said, "Today, Deepika Padukone, Katrina Kaif and Priyanka Chopra take home really good pay packets, more than some heroes. And they deserve it. I don't know if they take more than me or Salman but they're celebrated for their worth."

Addressing the pay disparity, he added, "In other fields like, say, with a male or a female pilot, both are paid equally for what they bring to the table. But market forces dictate our payment in the film industry because they define the result at the turnstiles. When we ask for equal pay, a lot of pressure is put on women actors to sell the movie on their own steam. I know that women actors work five times harder and get paid 10 times less than men. In my own small way, I have asked for their names to appear before mine in credit roll. I attempt to pay them as well as I can in my own productions; I've co-produced films with women directors and actors. I believe I am the change. I always see a story from a woman's point of view, make sure the woman's role is meaty."

On the work front, SRK will be next seen in Rahul Dholakia's Raees. The film, which also stars Mahira Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, is set to hit the screens on January 25.

Source: Agencies

risingbd/DHAKA/Jan 11, 2017/Amirul