Bollywood superstar Madhuri Dixit believes pay parity in Hindi cinema is still a distant dream as women have to repeatedly prove themselves and demonstrate their ability to draw audiences to theatres.
Dixit, the star of films such as "Tezaab", "Hum Aapke Hain Koun..!", "Dil To Pagal Hai", "Khalnayak" and "Devdas", on Friday evening participated in session "The Journey of Women in Cinema", which kickstarted the 2025 IIFA Weekend.
"For the women, they have to prove themselves time and again and to say that we are equal and we can draw an audience, but you have to prove it every single time. And yes, there is still a disparity," Dixit, who most recently featured in "Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3", said.
"It's like pushing the envelope every time, a little bit more, it's like baby steps. We are still a long way away from disparity not happening... We have to kind of work every day towards it," she added.
Dixit said every film she did in her career had very strong female characters.
The actor said "Mrityudand" was one of the films she particularly enjoyed because it featured her in a strong role.
"I was very fortunate to get characters that were very strong, strong women—whether it was 'Beta', 'Dil', 'Raja', 'Dil To Pagal Hai', or 'Mrityudand'. I mean, if there was one film that I really enjoyed making, it was 'Mrityudand'," she said.
Dixit said people used to consider her to be the "baby of commercial films" and that's why they advised her against doing the film.
"'Mrityudand' was considered to be an ‘art film.’ And the two were like separate things—you couldn’t merge them. And I said, ‘No, I want to do it because it’s a great role. It’s about women’s empowerment, it’s about a woman standing up and speaking for herself," she said.
Dixit also said that earlier in her career, the only women on set were the actors and hairdressers.
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She said there were very few women directors and Sai Paranjpye was the only one she knew at the time.
"Now, when I came back (from the US) and walked onto the sets, there were women in every department -- ADs, DOPs, writers, and more directors than before. Women are everywhere, which I think is very heartening to see, and it’s a big change," she added.
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