By Anjuri Nayar Singh

Mumbai, Mar 28 (IANS): Actress Shriya Pilgaonkar says the industry needs to work on eliminating pay disparity on the basis of gender. Shriya, who will be seen in the film "Haathi Mere Saathi", says she has heard actresses discussing how male stars often get paid as much as the entire budget of a heroine-centric film!

"I have heard conversations of the biggest leading actresses on how the budget of their entire film has been the salary of a male actor," she told IANS.

She says that even though you don't know how much your co-actor is earning, you are able to guess based on the film's progresses.

"I don't know how much my co-actors get but you get a sense of it. You know how negotiations are done. At a personal level, I made sure that I get the best deal in my capacity," she says.

The actress says that it's important to stand up for yourself.

"I don't know how something like this (can change). Maybe over the period of time when people will take a stand for themselves, things will become better," she says.

She adds: "We need to understand at a personal level that if we don't value ourselves, no one else will."

Shriya has been seen in films such as "House Arrest" and "Fan" and shows such as "The Gone Game", "Crackdown", "Beecham House" and "Mirzapur".