Samantha Ruth Prabhu and Akshay Kumar appeared as guests on the latest episode of Koffee With Karan where the former shined brighter than ever.

Though Samantha Ruth Prabhu has made it to the list of highest paid female actors in South India, she said on Koffee With Karan’s latest episode, that her pay per film is equal to that of Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar’s pay per day.

The latest episode of the seventh season of Koffee With Karan, hosted by filmmaker Karan Johar, aired on Disney+ Hotstar on Thursday. The coffee couch was graced by the presence of Akshay and Samantha, making it her debut on the couch.

Talking about their individual careers, Samnatha mentioned she began her acting career because it was a “need” at home and her family could not afford higher education for her. She noticed she was earning well and she wanted to make more money, which led to her taking up acting full time. Her first salary was Rs 500.

While Akshay spoke on similar lines regarding his acting career. He said while working as a martial arts trainer, he took up an ad and was paid Rs 5000 for 2 hrs of shoot, which was way more than he earned as a trainer. He said he needed to make money and following the ad, he decided to take up acting as his career. He further mentioned that it was a seven-hero film Jaani Dushman (2002) that gave him the money to buy the flat he lives in at present. He was getting a little over Rs 20,000 per day at the time.

After hearing Akshay’s story of struggle in the beginning of his career and where he is now, Samantha mentioned that her salary for one film is equal to that of Akshay’s pay per day. This statement stirred a conversation on the internet regarding the pay parity still evidently prevalent between female actors and male actors across all film industries.

While Akshay’s net worth is approximately $240 million, as per celebrity networth.com, Samantha’s net worth, as per the same website, is approximately $10 million.

The Bollywood actor allegedly has charged Rs 135 crore for his upcoming film and usually charges 40 to 50 percent share in the profits for smaller films and home productions along with an acting fees. While Samantha charges Rs 3-8 crores for a film.

This conversation was an echo of the conversation between actors Siddhanth Chaturvedi and Ananya Panday. They spoke about struggles in their respective careers at one of the Rajeev Masand Actor’s RoundTable. Chaturvedi had said that the star kids’ struggles begin from the point where the dreams of the non-star kids or “outsiders” get fulfilled.