DEEPIKA KNOWS HER WORTH, STANDS HER GROUND

Motherhood, misogyny drive Bollywood actress' exit from Sandeep Vanga's film

- BY MANJUSHA RADHAKRISHNAN | Entertainment Editor

“No uterus, no opinion,” said Rachel Green, played brilliantly by Jennifer Aniston in hit sitcom Friends. She was being flippant, but she wasn’t wrong.

This week, Deepika Padukone and director Sandeep Reddy Vanga reportedly parted ways on Spirit, the Prabhas-led film. Why? She reportedly asked for an eight-hour workday — reasonable, considering she just had a baby — and a 200-million-rupee fee. She also wanted a few intimate scenes reworked. Sensible asks, all of them.

Instead of a professional response, what followed was a dig from Vanga — who seemed to suggest that Deepika was somehow belittling the actress who replaced her. Classic deflection. Turn it into a women-vs-women issue and dodge accountability. But this isn't about petty rivalry. This is about how women, especially mothers, are expected to shrink themselves the moment they step back into the workforce.