MUMBAI: Actress Lara Dutta is currently starring in the web series Ranneeti: Balakot & Beyond on Jio Cinema. Lara recently spoke with the popular news portal about her two decades in the industry and how much Bollywood has evolved in the modern day as the event was being promoted. Lara Dutta reflected on her experiences as an actor and stated that salary inequality persists in Bollywood to this day.

Also read: Lara Dutta reveals how she beat a man in the crowd as he pinched her waist

Sharing what it was like being a celebrity 21 years ago, Lara said, “For me, it was just simpler but also more chaotic. The professionalism has come in with a lot of corporates and studios, and it has become more streamlined. Back then, it was a lot more free-flowing, but it was all over the place. There is so much pressure on the younger actors to present themselves in a certain way and there’s this media presence. We, on the other hand, did our jobs, focused on our work, and got on with it.”

When asked about the challenges she faced as an actor back then, the Welcome To The Jungle actress shared, “As a woman, there were plenty of them, one of the biggest ones which we still fight is pay disparity. We work as hard if not harder than most of our male counterparts in the business, but most women still get paid, if they are lucky, one-tenth of what the actor gets paid.”

She is upbeat about how the idea of an actress's shelf life and beauty standards have changed over time in the business. Lara Dutta comments on the standards of beauty, “It’s in process and there are a lot of wonderful women that have been a part of molding that change in perception.”

Speaking about her thoughts on an actress's current shelf life, Lara continues, “Earlier it was thought that by the time you reached 30, it was time for you to settle down as your career was finished. I never faced that. I am in my 40s now and I haven’t stopped working.”

Lara Dutta is set to feature in Welcome To The Jungle shortly and is believed to be portraying Kaikeyi in Nitesh Tiwari's Ramayana. The actor played it safe when asked about the Ramayana, saying, "Who wouldn't want to be a part of the Ramayana?"

Also read: Lara Dutta reveals how she beat a man in the crowd as he pinched her waist

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Credit- The Indian Express