Madhur Bhandarkar discloses how Tabu, Priyanka Chopra and Kareena Kapoor slashed their fee for his movies

Madhur Bhandarkar, who is well-known for his strong films that focus on women, recently discussed his career and the difficulties he had while producing them. At Cine Talkies 2024, the filmmaker shared with Indian Express that actresses such as Kareena Kapoor Khan, Priyanka Chopra, and Tabu had once agreed to lower their fees in order to work with him. Bhandarkar reminisced that these actresses, though major stars, felt he could make a movie that could be impactful without spending too much money on it, especially when others did not want to do the film.


He said that high actor fees often led to budget constraints for movies, particularly those with a woman in the lead.
Bhandarkar added that male actors should consider reducing their fee for women-centric films to correct the industry's gender and pay disparities. He said that after all that, male dominated films tend to have greater budgets when compared to female lead films whose budgets are often restricted at Rs 20-22 crores while male based stories come up to 50 to 60 crores of rupees.

Bhandarkar also spoke about how he faced problems in getting male actors for his movies. He said that several actors were reluctant to be part of women-centric movies as they did not want the female leads to dominate them.

According to him, the change in the industry is such that male actors are nowadays more concerned about the scale of their roles and prefer hero-oriented films. This has made casting for his women-focused films more challenging, often involving the entry of newcomers into key roles.

Reflecting on this journey, Bhandarkar has recalled how Chandni Bar- a movie focused on women's issues- became an important turn in his career and he remembers how he firmly refused producers who wanted him to item-ize a film because they wanted more commercial numbers. Big-budget movies like Gadar, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, and Lagaan presented fierce competition, but Chandni Bar managed to secure nominations at major award shows. Even though Chandni Bar had positive reviews, he acknowledged that it was difficult to have it done because few producers were interested in supporting stories that focused on women.

Bhandarkar also touched upon the ongoing issues women-centric films are facing in Bollywood, where the producers tend to shy away from funding such projects. He said that even today, whenever he pitches a female-centric story, the budget is restricted, and it becomes difficult for those films to compete with the male-centric narratives. He emphasized that true gender equality is still work in progress though there is some success in that.


Even though Chandni Bar is, according to Bhandarkar, a career-defining landmark film for him, he wouldn't call himself the great hero of women-centric cinema. He gave credits to others like Bimal Roy, Kamaal Amrohi, Guru Dutt, Shyam Benegal, and Raj Kapoor for their work in the women-centric films. He said that the masala films that started in the 1980s led to the sidelining of women-centric cinema. However, Chandni Bar was a breakthrough film, which released along commercial blockbusters that helped destroy stereotypes associated with women-oriented films in Bollywood.