Smriti Irani, known for her role as Tulsi, advocated for equal pay for women in entertainment. She highlighted the economic impact of cultural phenomena created by women. Irani emphasized talent over gender in contract negotiations. She also acknowledged challenges women face even after success. She balanced media, politics, and family life.
PTI
Variously an actress, model, producer and politician, Smriti Irani's iconic role of 'Tulsi' was part of the battle demanding higher compensation for women in the entertainment industry.
Television and OTT with approximately ₹54,000 crore of ad revenue that employs close to 2 million, entertainment from the segment is one place where women probably make more of the workforce than men.
"Not only as actors but also one of the first female producers who became celebrated and became a powerhouse, became a listed company, all because they started with one slot. The difference was that that lady got paid less for a project as compared to many male producers. But in that frugality, she would create a legacy. And looking at the corporate environment, one knew that women at every level of management were cognisant of the fact that it's not the gender but the talent that you bring to the table that will help you leverage or negotiate a contract better," Irani said at The Economic Times Women's Forum held in Mumbai.
"The other aspect that this one particular character brought was the cultural phenomena which had an economic impact," she added.
Irani added that while negotiating a contract, the real value could be created when you impact how one is portrayed. "Many a times you can justify the paycheque by compromising on how you're projected. Real power is to control the pen that writes your character," she said.
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Irani stressed the need that the challenges don't end once a woman is successful, the hard work and perseverance have to continue. "The biggest fairy tale we sell to women and young girls is that everything will be okay once you succeed, which is hogwash. It gets more difficult. Only the insights get more elegant, the elbowing gets a bit sharper. There is a generation of women who kind of said, let's keep going forward," she asserted.
"They would not dress up to the best of their potential, put on the greatest of makeups because they just wanted to blend, because they wanted to succeed. We rode on the shoulders of those women, but let's not keep selling that fairy tale. It's going to be okay when you succeed, when you have money," she added.
"We know statistically that women with a paycheque in urban centres do have to face domestic violence. That there are women who shun promotions because it makes them outshine the partners they have. We have women who want to double up on their work only so that they can compete with men in a company, so that the next time a promotion happens, they can say, 'I worked harder for the same paycheque as a man and they still don't get more'," she said.
Having two successful careers, both as a politician and an actor and being a mother, Irani said that there is a need to recognise that as professionals, you're working towards a paycheque and a professional legacy.
"My media and political careers went simultaneously. It was never either/or, so when I had my first child, I was working not only in media, not only in politics. I was also working for the WHO as a Goodwill Ambassador. I was in 2003 the vice president of the Youth Wing of BJP here... When Vasundhara Raje was first projected as the Rajasthan BJP candidate in 2003, my girl was three months old. So I used to shoot all night and campaign for Vasundhara Raje all day. And I did that for 22 days in a row and there were no headlines about it. But that's a choice you have. It's your choice to give birth to a kid. It's your choice to be a media professional, or political activist," she said.
On women in politics, Irani stressed the need to celebrate not only those in Parliament but also those who are working at the grassroots.
"One of the greatest myopias we suffer from is that women in politics are the women in Parliament. We have 1.5 million women who get elected to our panchayats across the country. That is the largest cohort of political women any country has. We have 10 crore women who are part of an economic revolution in our 644,000 villages. They have a yearly economic opportunity generation of $37 billion."
PTI
