Deepika on Forbes’ list of world’s highest paid actors

Leading Indian actor Deepika Padukone has made her debut among the world’s top 10 highest paid actors with earnings of $10 million dollars in a list alongside Hollywood heavyweights Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence, Julia Roberts and ‘Friends’ star Jennifer Anniston.

Padukone, 30, is the only Indian actor and the sole newcomer in Forbes’ 2016 list of the ‘World’s Highest-Paid Actores’, coming in on the 10th spot. Forbes said Padukone has “scored box office gold” in Bollywood movies such as Bajirao Mastani and Piku.

While she earns less than her Hollywood counterparts for roles, Padukone “compensates with over a dozen lucrative endorsements”, which “have helped her hedge against a deep pay gap in Bollywood”. The list shows her with earnings of $10 million.

Forbes said the Bangalore-bred Padukone, who made her Bollywood film debut in 2007 with Shahrukh Khan-starrer Om Shanti Om, has “since starred in several films that have crossed the $150 million or 100 crore mark a barometer for box office success in India”. Padukone “has also become something of a style icon” launching her own label for an Indian online shopping site. 

Making her Hollywood debut along Fast and Furious star Vin Diesel, she will be seen in 2017 in xXx: Return of Xander Cage.

Noting the gender pay gap in the Indian movie industry, “a discrepancy not uncommon in Hollywood” also, Forbes said though a top Indian male star might earn close to $5 million a movie, prominent Indian actors rarely clear $1 million a film. 

For the second year in a row, Oscar-winning Hunger Games actor Lawrence topped the list of the world’s highest-paid actors, notching $46 million.