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colossal. While, Prabhas, one of the most popular Tamil industry actors is paid from 30 to 35
crores and while the leading actress Anushka Shetty charges 5 crores.
Another aspect that is related to both casting and pay gap is the budget of the
films. Bollywood as well as Tollywood are making films where females play the central
characters. Despite that, there is a difference (Abdel-Fadil and Eynde). The budgets of the
films that are centered on male characters are much higher than the ones that are centered on
the females. For example, Perched, a Bollywood movie had a budget of $2.7 million whereas
Rockstar, a male centered Bollywood movie had a budget of $8.7 million. The locations and
the cast used for the films are also prominent.
Another gender disparity prominent in the Indian and Bangladeshi cinema is
the sexual objectification of women in the casting. The casting process for women in Indian
movies often portrays them as sexually attractive and happy characters or they are casted in
the item songs where their basic role is to please the eyes of the male beholder. Dressing
them in revealing clothes and makeup, they are made to dance on different songs that shows
the psychology of casting women in Indian and Bangladeshi cinema (Agarwal). They are
happier than men and are self-sacrificing and submissive. For example, in a Bollywood
movie Cocktail, of the two female characters, one is innocent and shy while the other is
outgoing and party loving. The male character finally chooses the former one to be his love
interest on the ground that she is likely to make a better spouse than the later one. Moreover,
on a Bengali movie named Dosar, one of the most celebrated in Bengali Tollywood industry,
the wife of the protagonist finds out about his husband’s extra-marital affair. She struggles
with the information but lastly forgives him. In many other movies too, male protagonists are
shown as playboys or polygamists while the women who follow suit are seen as fallen
women and criticized. Other well-known issues related to gender disparity include the casting
couch incidents known widely, which target women as their main victims while men rarely

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Gender Inequality in Casting in South-Asian Film Industry: Literature Review

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